Born in London in 1969 to Paul and Linda McCartney, Mary McCartney followed in her mother’s footsteps and became a professional photographer in 1992. She has published three vegetarian cookbooks and a number of photography books, including From Where I Stand (2010) and Monochrome & Colour (2014). McCartney’s latest book, Paris Nude (Heni), a record of two days spent at the home of New York-born, Paris-based comedian Phyllis Wang, is out now.

1. Documentary
Matangi/Maya/MIA

I’ve always loved MIA’s music, but didn’t know much about her background. The documentary shows her life, her art and political leanings – it has footage from when she was at college up until now. I didn’t know she’d started out as an artist and film-maker. It’s particularly poignant when she goes back to Sri Lanka and is playing with the kids in her grandmother’s house; it showed her human side rather than just her up on stage. I thought it was very intelligently put together.

2. Podcast
Front Row

I like to put this on if I’m on the tube, travelling or walking in the park – I’ll catch up on things. They have everything, from Steve Carell talking about his latest film to discussions of the Costa book prize or the latest Bridget Riley exhibition and the Oscar nominations, which was really interesting. That’s why I like it – it’s the variety. It keeps you up on books, exhibitions and movies. It crosses the range of my interests and keeps me a bit more involved in areas I wouldn’t usually spend time on otherwise.

3. Gallery
V&A Photography Centre

I love that you can get lost in the V&A. It has so many galleries: miniatures, silver collections, amazing sculptures, marbles. It has two new rooms devoted to historic and modern photography, so I’ve been spending more time there. They have very early processed sun prints and work by lots of different photographers including Cindy Sherman and Lee Miller. They also have a selection of my own and my mum’s photography, which is exciting. It’s quite special for a museum to make two of its rooms permanent photography galleries.

4. App
FiLMiC Pro

I do some directing as well as photography. Everyone is always on their phones these days, so I downloaded this app, which has video settings for playing around with the shutter speed, make things lighter and darker with the aperture or make it slower, at 50 frames per second, and things like that. It takes a little while to get used to. But if I’ve got a camera on me and I want to film something quickly, this is a bit of kit to have in your phone that allows you to do more cinematographer-type effects.

5. Place
Regent’s Park

I love this London park. It has the playing fields, which are a great big, wide open space, and then in the inner circle it has this much more planted and manicured area, which in the summer is an amazing rose garden. You can wander through so many different spaces – the boating area, the Open Air theatre, the bandstand – and there’s even an area that has allotments in it. I go to this park any time I can sneak away. I’m probably more of a morning person, but it’s great at any time. And I love going on the little boats in the summer.

6. Gig venue
Ronnie Scott’s

This is somewhere I’ve gone to a lot over the years. It’s in the heart of London’s Soho, which I love, and it’s a major institution, with so much history and such a range of people playing there. Last year, I saw the Last Poets perform and Ruby Turner, who plays with Jools Holland, performed there recently. It’s got an intimacy to it I really like: you go in and it’s got low lighting, little seats and red lamps on the tables and the upstairs lounge area is really cool. It’s a great venue to go to if you want to have a good night out.