In episode 174 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on how big business impacts on the photographic commission, who photography festival's are aimed at and the courage of conflict photographers.

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

Claire Thomas is a photojournalist and fine art photographer from Wales, currently based between London and New York. A graduate in Politics from the University of the West of England, her photojournalism work is focused on issues surrounding political and military conflicts, human rights, and humanitarian and environmental crises. From within the camps that emerged from the refugee crisis in Europe to the frontlines in the battle against ISIS in Iraq, Thomas has covered a range of stories in various countries, contributing images and photo essays to leading newspapers, magazines and news agencies worldwide. Her editorial clients include The New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, National Geographic Magazine, and Al Jazeera among others. She works regularly with United Nations agencies and international non-governmental organisations including UNDP, UNHCR, Amnesty International, OXFAM and Save the Children. Thomas's work has been shortlisted for a number of awards including Photojournalist of the Year at the 2017 Press Gazette British Journalism Awards, Photo Essay of the Year in the 2018 UK Picture Editors’ Guild Awards, the 2018 Amnesty International UK Media Awards Photojournalism category, and Women Photograph 2019 Year in Pictures. A keen horse rider, motorcyclist, adventurer and nature enthusiast, she has undertaken several independent photography projects in diverse and remote corners of the world, including Alaska, Wyoming, Lesotho, Mozambique and more recently Mongolia where she photographed the iconic Kazakh eagle hunters of the Altai mountains. Claire is trained in battlefield first aid and surviving hostile environments. www.clairethomasphotography.com

Dr. 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, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor 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).

Grant’s 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 2021