In September 2012, Alasdair Foster was in Pingyao for the photographic festival. While he was there he was interviewed for a podcast about the exhibition he was presenting, which featured the work of three Mexican artists. The podcast was for PhotoWorld, a print and web-based art-photography magazine. As it progressed, the conversation branched out into a more general discussion about photography and, on the basis of that exchange, the interviewer invited him to write a series of articles about Australian photography for the magazine. He agreed and, from 2013 to 2021, he published an interview each month in PhotoWorld.

As 2013 drew to a close, the editor asked if I would continue with the interviews but widen the field internationally. So, in 2014, I focused on Latin America; in 2015 all the interviews were with women; in 2017 the concept was staged photography; in 2018 the theme was work that explored notions of the domestic; in 2019, photographic artists with their own particular ‘way of seeing’; in 2020, a series on compassion in photography; and in 2021 art and photography.

In 2016, the interviews were with the directors of twelve international photography festivals, each set within their own cultural context and with their own scale, ethos, and audience.