A Photographic Life

In this 'Photobook Special' episode UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his she connecting with Mary V Swanson in Arizona and Darius Himes in New York to discuss their book Publish Your Photography Book and all things 'photobook' related.

You can find out more about the book mentioned in this episode here www.publishyourphotographybook.com and here on Instagram @publishyourphotographybook

Mary V Swanson is an educator, author, entrepreneur and a respected advisor to artists and arts organisations. She received her MFA in Photography from Arizona State University in 1979 and throughout graduate school she served as a research assistant for the Curator of Photography at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. She began her career at The Friends of Photography in Carmel, California, managing the education offerings including the Ansel Adams Workshop and then moved to New York to head Special Projects at Magnum Photos, before relocating to Tucson, Arizona in 1990 to launch Swanstock, an agency managing licensing rights for fine art photographers. She currently works independently, offering consulting services to artists and arts organisations, and offering her own classes and educational seminars, serving as an advisor for multiple not-for-profit industry organisations, and other community-minded activities. Swanson coauthored with Darius Himes Publish Your Photography Book: Revised & Updated in 2014. Among the recent awards she has received are the 2015 Honoured Educator from the Society for Photographic Education, the 2014 Susan Carr Award for Education from the American Society for Media Photographers (ASMP) and the FOCUS Award for Lifetime Achievement in Photography from the Griffin Museum. She frequently serves as a judge on contemporary photography and photobook competitions, as a portfolio reviewer for industry events, and she presents group learning through interactive lectures, workshops and Master Class Retreats. Swanson is based in Tucson, Arizona. @maryvirginiaswanson.

Darius Himes completed his Master of Arts in Liberal Arts at St. John's College in 2000, and received a BFA in Photography from Arizona State University, having studied under William Jenkins and Bill Jay. Based in New York City, Himes has overseen a global team producing auctions and exhibition as the International Head of Photographs for the auction house Christie’s since 2014. Prior to joining Christie’s, Himes was the director of the Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco from 2011–2014. In 2007 he co-founded Radius Books, a non-profit publisher of books on photography and the visual arts, where he continues to serve on the Board. While working with artists such as John McCracken and Lee Friedlander, he has published first monographs for over a dozen emerging artists, including Renate Aller, Colleen Plumb, Aaron Huey, Janelle Lynch, Michael Lundgren, Alison Rossiter, and Meghan Riepenhoff. Himes was also the founding editor of the photo-eye Booklist, a quarterly journal devoted to photography books, which was published from 2002–2007. A lecturer and writer, he has contributed to Aperture, The Photobook Review, Blind Spot, Bookforum, FOAM and BOMB. @dariushimes

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). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts.

© Grant Scott 2023

In this monthly conversation series Grant Scott speaks with editor, writer and curator of photography Bill Shapiro. In an informal conversation each month Grant and Bill comment on the photographic environment as they see it. This month they reflect on photography and artificial intelligence in a rigorous discussion dealing with the impact AI is and will have on the future of photography.

Bill Shapiro

Bill Shapiro served as the Editor-in-Chief of LIFE, the legendary photo magazine; LIFE’s relaunch in 2004 was the largest in Time Inc. history. Later, he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of LIFE.com, which won the 2011 National Magazine Award for digital photography. Shapiro is the author of several books, among them Gus & Me, a children’s book he co-wrote with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and, What We Keep, which looks at the objects in our life that hold the most emotional significance. A fine-art photography curator for New York galleries and a consultant to photographers, Shapiro is also a Contributing Editor to the Leica Conversations series. He has written about photography for the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, Vogue, and Esquire, among others. Every Friday — more or less — he posts about under-the-radar photographers on his Instagram feed, where he’s @billshapiro.

Dr.Grant Scott

After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is 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), and What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018.

© Grant Scott 2023

In episode 269 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the slow death of the 'old school' photo festival, publishing archives, feedback that is too nice and his inability to use AI.

Plus this week, photographer Julio Mitchel 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?’

Julio Mitchel was born and raised in Cuba and has worked in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru and Brazil. A few months after the Cuban revolution, Mitchel, then 17, went to New York City. Though he had intended to be a lawyer, he didn’t enjoy school and took a series of jobs as a photographic assistant, mostly to fashion photographers. While he was picking up technical skills, he developed the habit of regularly expressing his contempt for the fashion world. His life changed when he took a photography class with Lisette Model at the New School. In the first class, the students showed their work and Model’s critique reduced Mitchel to tears. But he returned to class and she later became a friend. He went on to photograph in the Middle East and Northern Ireland but found himself somewhat lost — too art based for newspapers and magazines; too journalistic for art galleries. He received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and published two books that have long been out of print, Tu Me Amas? in 1991 and Triptych” in 1990. Mitchel taught at the School of Visual Arts, Cooper Union and the New School and continued to pursue his personal work. He is now retired from teaching and is trying to organise his unseen photographs of the last 20 years. www.juliomitchel.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). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts.

© Grant Scott 2023

In episode 268 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on snake-oil salesmen, the importance of an attention to detail over concept and the issue of quantity over quality.

Plus this week, photographer Edward Thompson 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?’

Edward Thompson is a British documentary photographer whose photographic work focuses on various subjects over the years covering environmental issues, socio-political movements, subcultures, everyday life and the consequences of war. Thompson had a life changing experience with an early apprenticeship with the Russian photographer Sergey Chilikov, whom he met at the Arles Photography Festival in 2001. That summer Ed stayed with Sergey in Paris and learnt the value of shooting everyday life, eating fried fat and drinking red wine. Since then, his documentary photo-essays have been published in international magazines including National Geographic Magazine, Newsweek Japan, Greenpeace Magazine, The Guardian Weekend Magazine, BBC, CNN and The Sunday Times Magazine. Thompson's work has been exhibited at Christies, Somerset House and Four Corners Gallery (London) and shown as part of photography festivals in Arles (France), Tampere (Finland), Zingst (Germany) & London (U.K). Thompson has lectured on photography and spoken regularly about photography on television, radio and online, including on Al Jazeera News and the BBC World Service. In2012 he self-published a book of his work titled Occupy London. In 2016 he published The Unseen: An Atlas of Infrared Plates and in 2022 he self-published his book In-A-Gadda-Da-England. https://edwardthompson.co.uk

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). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts.

© Grant Scott 2023

In episode 267 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the importance of editorial photography and its demise, fashion photography in the Metaverse and how established lens brands are viewing the future of the smartphone.

Plus this week, photographer David Baker 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?’

David Baker is a photographer based in Norfolk, United Kingdom whose work has featured in numerous books, commissioned artworks and art institutions. His work over the past ten years evidences a documentation of abandoned and historical places, buildings and spaces across Europe as he searches for the unknown, hidden and historically significant. www.davidbakerphotography.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). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts.

Scott's new book Conde Nast Have Left the Building: Six Decades of Vogue House will be published in the Spring of 2024 by Orphans Publishing.

© Grant Scott 2023

In the eighth episode of this monthly conversation series Grant Scott speaks with editor, writer and curator of photography Bill Shapiro. In an informal conversation each month Grant and Bill comment on the photographic environment as they see it. This month they reflect on photography and artificial intelligence in a rigorous discussion dealing with the impact AI is and will have on the future of photography.

Bill Shapiro

Bill Shapiro served as the Editor-in-Chief of LIFE, the legendary photo magazine; LIFE’s relaunch in 2004 was the largest in Time Inc. history. Later, he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of LIFE.com, which won the 2011 National Magazine Award for digital photography. Shapiro is the author of several books, among them Gus & Me, a children’s book he co-wrote with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and, What We Keep, which looks at the objects in our life that hold the most emotional significance. A fine-art photography curator for New York galleries and a consultant to photographers, Shapiro is also a Contributing Editor to the Leica Conversations series. He has written about photography for the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, Vogue, and Esquire, among others. Every Friday — more or less — he posts about under-the-radar photographers on his Instagram feed, where he’s @billshapiro.

Dr.Grant Scott

After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is 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), and What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018.

© Grant Scott 2023

In episode 265 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the dangers of photography becoming too introspective, the importance of recognising when you hit a ceiling and the realities of working as a commissioned photographer.

Plus this week, photographer Tom Bowden 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?’

Tom Bowden is an American Photographer recognised internationally for his street portrait work. 

Influenced early in life by the work of Diane Arbus, Mary Ellen Mark and Philip-Lorca diCorcia, his street portraits are often accompanied by the stories of the people he meets and works with on the streets. When he was 15, he saw the Diane Arbus image, Child with Toy Hand Grenade in a High School Library Book. After that, he was obsessed. Bowden's work as a photographer and producer have taken him around the world and his work has been collected in two books Love Street and Encounters, Portraits of Americans. His work has been published in The Guardian, FotoMagazin, L’Oeil de la Photographie amongst many other publications.  www.tbowphoto.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). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts.

© Grant Scott 2023

In episode 264 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the growing issues of wellbeing amongst photographers both young, old and those in-between. He also marks the passing of UNP contributor Pete Silverton.

Plus this week, photographer Alessia Rollo takes 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?’

*You can discover more of Pete Silverton's writing on photography as mentioned in this episode by putting his name into the website search bar.

Alessia Rollo is a visual artist born in 1982 in Southern Italy where she lives and works. After earning her undergraduate degree in visual communication at the University of Perugia, she completed a master’s in creative photography at the EFTI, Spain in 2009. For Rollo, rather than explaining or documenting a situation, photography is a medium that permits myriad metaphors. In her projects she questions photography a a tool of representation and deliberately mixes a documentary approach with a fictionary one. Her work focuses on the Mediterranean area to question relevant topics in main stream storytelling and visual stereotypes, whilst seeking to expand a sense of community through re-appropriation of histories, memories and visual material. Her work has been exhibited in many international exhibitions in solo and group shows. www.alessiarollo.it

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). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts.

© Grant Scott 2023

In episode 263 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the definition of the personal project, how you describe what you do if you are a photographer, and he updates listeners on upcoming episodes.

Plus this week, photographer Tamara Saade takes 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?’

Born and raised in Lebanon, Tamara Saade is a journalist and photographer currently based in Beirut. She mainly covers Lebanon's ever-changing political landscape, focusing on human rights, with a documentary approach, through photography, writing, and videography. Working with different photographic formats and artistic platforms, she uses the intersectionality of the medium and the message to highlight her stories. She has worked with The New York Times, The Washington Post, the UN, Vice International, Al-Jazeera, and Megaphone amongst others. She has exhibited he work in the US, France, the UAE, Norway, and Lebanon. https://tamarasaade.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). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts.

© Grant Scott 2023

In episode 262 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the importance of serenity now! What to do when things go wrong on a commissioned shoot and making a small difference.

Plus this week, photographer Pippa Healy takes 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?’

Pippa Healy is a photographic artist based in London whose practice is primarily diaristic and concerned with themes of loss, longing, violence and grief. She had a successful career in television before embarking on her photographic journey, working for Reuters on their news desk as well as on documentaries and factual programmes such as Dispatches and Cutting Edge for Channel 4. Healy studied at Central St Martins for a Post-Grad Certificate in Photography and then an MA in Photographic Studies at Westminster University. She then expanded her photographic practice with an MA in Printmaking at UAL Camberwell graduating in 2020. Her handmade ‘Zines’ are central to her practice. Healy has shown work at Festival Circulations in Paris, Les Rencontres d’Arles and Format Festival (UK) and her work has been widely published in magazines and exhibited internationally and her zines are part of the Tate Galley, Martin Parr Foundation and MEP in Paris. Healy was the recipient of the 2020 Bainbridge Studio Prize and a finalist for The Signature Art Prize in 2021. She is currently studying for a Doctorate in Fine Art from The University of East London where she also lectures in Contextual Studies on the BA Photography course. www.pippahealy.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). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts.

© Grant Scott 2023