In episode 106 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering a move away from competing in the arts on television, what it takes to start an independent collective and the positive outcomes that could come from the current global lockdown.

Plus this week photographer Cathal McNaughton takes on the challenge of supplying Grant with an audio file no longer than 5 minutes in length in which he answer’s the question ‘What Does Photography Mean to You?’

Born during the height of ‘The Troubles,’ Cathal was inspired to become a photographer after meeting photojournalists from across the world who were working in Ireland during the the civil unrest. As the youngest child with two bossy older sisters, he describes himself as a tolerant person who is a fan of a knitted jumper and does not trust horses! After winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for his coverage of the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh, Cathal relocated back to Ireland where he is continuing his work documenting people and places. He was chief photographer for Reuters in India and has travelled extensively in Asia covering news stories of world importance. He also worked for Reuters in Europe, the Press Association and The Daily Telegraph, and his work regularly features in leading publications across the globe. Cathal’s photography has won him major accolades including U.K Press Photographer of the Year, Royal Photographer of the Year and Environmental Photographer of the Year. His work capturing the struggle of the exiled Rohingya Muslims saw him awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in New York in 2018. Cathal leads master classes, workshops and conferences in universities and he travels worldwide talking about the role of the media in divided societies and the importance of factual journalism in the world of social media. www.cathal-mcnaughton.com

You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-lifeand Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast

Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His book New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019.

The documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay can now be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47549knOU&t=3915s.

© Grant Scott 2020