In episode 139 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on photography at Christmas past, present and future. He also welcomes, podcast listener, former Life magazine Editor and writer on photography Bill Shapiro to the shed to explain what photography means to him as part of our 2020 Christmas Special.

Bill Shapiro is an American writer and editor, best known for serving as the editor of LIFE magazine, and as the founding editor of LIFE.com. LIFE magazine had not been published as a weekly for 32 years until Shapiro revived it in 2004. It resumed publication as a weekend supplement to U.S. newspapers with a combined circulation of approximately 12 million. LIFE.com was launched on March 31, 2009, and won the National Magazine Award for digital photography in 2011,and Webby Awards in 2010 and 2011. Shapiro collaborated with The Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards on a children's book called Gus & Me, which was published in 2014, and reached No.2 on The New York Times Best Seller list for children's books. Shapiro's book, Other People’s Love Letters, was published in 2007, and his co-edited book with Naomi Wax What We Keep: 150 People Share the One Object that Brings Them Joy, Magic, and Meaning was published in 2018. A fine-art photography curator for New York galleries and a consultant to photographers, he also serves on the Art Advisory Board for the SXSW festival. He writes about photography for the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, Vogue, and Esquire, among others. On Instagram, he’s @billshapiro.

The advertisements included in this episode include:

Lowenbrau Beer

Jack Benny and Frank Nelson For Kodak

Alka Seltzer

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 (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019).

His book What Does Photography Mean to You? including 89 photographers who have contributed to the A Photographic Life podcast is on sale now £9.99 https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/

© Grant Scott 2020