Welcome to 1854 Access: the ultimate career toolkit for photographers.

We’re making some changes to the way we do things. Every two months, we’ll be selecting a single, unifying theme to run across all of our content, awards and commissions.

Developed in direct response to Members’ feedback, this new approach is designed to maximise your benefits while investigating some of the most important issues of our time.

This month’s British Journal of Photography is an issue of two halves. The first half is informed by our main theme, Love. Flip the magazine over and you will find a second cover, shot by Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk. It includes a special section dedicated to stories about Ukrainian identity, culture, photography and the new reality of war.

Perhaps one of the most human emotions, love permeates so much of what we do. It has inspired and consumed artists for centuries, and it is no different for photographers today. 

We hear from Marco Zanella, Youqine Lefèvre, Karla Hiraldo Voleau, Dayanita Singh and Simon Baker – the curator of MEP’s dazzling show of photographic ballads, Love Songs. We visit the home studio of Ed and Deanna Templeton in Huntington Beach, California, gaining an insight into their “claustrophobic relationship”. And in our Intelligence section, we ask what the nude selfie can represent by way of self-love and empowerment. Plus, discover our regular pick of the most exciting books to look out for this spring.

In our dedicated section on Ukraine, we explore work that was made in anticipation of the Russian invasion, and as a result of it. Mark Neville shares his new book and call to action, Stop Tanks with Books. Caimi & Piccinni document a nation preparing for war. And Yelena Yemchuk captures Ukrainian youth in Odesa. Elsewhere, Kateryna Radchenko highlights the new photojournalists of Ukraine, and in a roundtable discussion Anton Shebetko, Yulia Krivish and Pavlo Borshchenko discuss the role of art and photography in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.