Appropriately for an artist willing to work in almost any medium, Jeremy Deller’s selection of Desert Island Pics was varied and eclectic.

Deller, who won the Turner Prize in 2004 and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale last year, discussed his choices with Stephen Bull, a photography lecturer at the University of Brighton.

His eight favourites included some shots from well-known photographers – such as Ken Russell’s portrait of a Teddy Girl in a bombed-out house, August Sander’s Infirm Old Man, and a semi-nude woman immortalised by Bettina Rheims. “Well, if I’m going to be on my own on a desert island…”

Open and unpretentious, Deller used the photos to discuss some of the themes of his own work.

A National Geographic portrait of a bat (“He looks like he’s smiling”) prompted memories of time spent filming them; a Homer Sykes shot of an unusual Derbyshire custom linked with Deller’s love of folklore; and he talked warmly about Welsh wrestler Adrian Street – pictured posing aggressively next to his bemused father at the head of a Brynmawr coal mine in 1973.

In all, it was an engaging, often funny, enlightening experience. But if Deller could only choose one photo? “It’s the Bettina Rheims, if I’m honest.”