In episode 175 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the negative aspect of work looking the same and coming from the same intellectual space, accepting new opportunities, the importance or not of the digital print and the risks and etiquette of social media.

Plus this week photographer Kristina Varaksina 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?’

Russian born Kristina Varaksina divides her time between New York, San Francisco and London. Before gaining her MFA in Photography at Academy of Art University, San Francisco, she worked as an Art Director at various advertising agencies in Moscow. Her work has been recognised with awards such as the Lens Culture Portrait Awards 2021, Portrait of Britain Winner 2020, Lens Culture Critics Choice 2020 Winner, BJP Portrait of Humanity 2020, AOP Open Awards 2020 Silver, IPA 2020, the PX3 Prix de la Photographie, Communications Arts, Int’l Photography Awards, and APA National Award. Whilst her clients include Harper's Bazaar, L'Officiel , The Telegraph, BBC, Fabric, Bonobos, and Ugg. She has taught photography at NYFA, New York and California Art Institute, San Francisco. https://kristinavaraksina.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