Phil Coomes

Image copyright © Norman Parkinson Ltd / courtesy Norman Parkinson

Around 30 years ago while browsing in a book shop in Shepherd's Bush, I picked up a copy of a small book called Contrasts by Koo Stark. It contained around 100 pictures taken by her, from portraits to landscapes, many showing a light-hearted touch.

For the first time in around two decades, a selection of those pictures are on show once more, alongside her photographs of actors and musicians, a few nudes and, of course, pictures of the model and photographer herself.

Koo Stark had an unusual route into the business. A relationship with the Duke of York in the early 80s meant pictures of her were in high demand by the press, with photographers camped out around her home and tailing her every move.

Reasoning that the faces of the photographers were all hidden behind their cameras, perhaps she could do the same thing and take some of that anonymity for herself. Koo Stark decided to pick up a camera and shoot back - arguably the first to make the leap from one side of the camera to the other.

"I thought if I put a camera up to my face they wont be able to tell it is me," says Stark. Though she says there was no way of hiding her long hair.

Image copyright Mikey Boardman

The coast of Britain has long drawn artists who look to capture the majesty of the sea or perhaps use the flat surface of the water as a metaphor. But others look to the shores to see how the tides shape the lives of those who live beside it.

Mikey Boardman, an aspiring British landscape photographer, currently studying for a degree in photography at Blackburn University, is one of those, taking as his theme the many tidal islands around the coast.

Image copyright Brian David Stevens

The chalk cliffs at Beachy Head sit at the eastern end of the South Downs National Park on the south coast of England and offer wonderful views across the south coast to those walking the coastal path.

The cliffs have appeared in many films, from Quadrophenia to Harry Potter and of course Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Image copyright Claudia Leisinger

This month sees the release of the latest set of 24 images from a group of photographers who document the first 24 hours of each year.

The original group of 24 met while studying at Central St Martins college of art and design in London and are now more than halfway through the project, which they hope to continue for 24 years. So that will be 24 sets of 24 images, 576 pictures.

Image copyright Peter Dench

Photography is a visual medium that connects the viewer with the subject through the eyes of the photographer and that magic black box.

It's unique in many ways, but the power the photographer wields in how the subject is represented should not be underestimated and is what makes the stories of those behind the lens so fascinating.

Image copyright Victoria Birkinshaw

A few years ago photographer Victoria Birkinshaw moved into a flat in south-east London as part of a property guardianship scheme, where residents pay below market rates to stay in a vacant building, providing the owner with income and keeping out squatters, but on short-term notice to leave.

While there, she came upon the idea of exploring how the building's temporary residents had each shaped their own space to suit them, photographing the way each one had dressed the identical space.

Image copyright Marcus Drinkwater

Last year I ran work by lifelong West Ham fan Marcus Drinkwater who had been documenting the final year of the football club's time at the ground they called home for 112 years - Upton Park.

West Ham now play their football at the Olympic Stadium, in Stratford, east London, but Drinkwater has continued to record both the demolition of the old stadium and the businesses that remain in the surrounding area, this time in black and white.

Photographer Geoffrey Hiller and writer Tom Vandel have spent the past year travelling on the number 75 bus in Portland, Oregon, stopping off along the way to explore and capture parts of the town usually only glimpsed thorough the window.

The route runs for nearly 20 miles and comprises 131 stops, from upper St Johns to downtown Milwaukie.

Image copyright Pascale Scherrer

Work by students on the MA photojournalism and documentary photography course at the London College of Communication - UAL goes on show this week, here's a selection of those that caught my eye.

Aletheia Casey

Following on from her project The Apology, Casey focuses on Tasmania, where she explores "the notion of deliberate historical forgetting throughout Australian history".

Image copyright Sarah Palmer

The presidential election in the US has of course produced a flood of images, many of them memorable.

From the confrontations between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during the televised debates to supporters of each candidate making their voices heard.