A Photographic Life

In the seventh 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 the personal project including when to stop, expectation, collaboration, rejection and how and when to receive feedback.

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.

Mentioned in this episode:

Greg Miller @gregmillerfoto 

B.A. Van Sise @b.a.vansise 

Book: Invited to Life

Marcia Bricker Halperin: @Marciabrickerphoto

Book: Kibbitz & Nosh

Lisette Model: www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/lisette-model?all/all/all/all/0

© Grant Scott 2023

In episode 260 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on digital art, the AI debate and reasons why student degree shows exist.

Plus this week, photographer John Haynes 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?’

John Haynes started taking photographs in 1963 after seeing Cartier-Bresson's book The Europeans. After working for two years with The Sunday Times, he decided to specialise in theatre photography. He was the in-house photographer for The Royal Court Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, and Michael Codron Ltd, from 1970-1994 , and between 1970 and 2006 photographed over 200 productions for The National Theatre. His most well-known images taken during his time were of the playwright Samuel Beckett. In 1986 Thames & Hudson published a book of Haynes theatre photography, called Taking the Stage: Twenty-One Years of the London Theatre, which was accompanied by an exhibition of his work at the National Theatre which later moved to the Colnaghi Gallery in New York, and then to The Moscow Arts Theatre. In 2003 Cambridge University Press published Haynes next book, Images of Beckett, with text by Samuel Beckett's biographer James Knowlson. https://johnhaynesphotography.net

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 special episode the first of an irregular series of talks with non-photographers involved with photography, Grant Scott speaks with founder/curator/artist/publisher Craig Atkinson about his publishing project Cafe Royal Books. They discuss the pressures of the long form project, publishing decisions, marketing and the impact Cafe Royal Books has had on British documentary photography.

Craig Atkinson/Cafe Royal Books

Based in Southport, England, Craig Atkinson is a senior lecturer and researcher at the University of Central Lancashire. He founded Café Royal Books in 2005 and new booklets are published frequently, typically one per week and in short runs of 250 copies which are sold both directly and through bookshops in the UK, Europe, USA, Australia, Japan, Canada and Switzerland. The booklets have a consistent print quality, paper and layout, laid out to a grid system, of usually 36 pages in length, slightly under A5 size and predominantly black & white and affordable. The booklets predominantly document social, historical and cultural change, including themes of youth, leisure, music, protest, race, religion, industry, identity, architecture and fashion, using both previously unpublished work and photographs from archives. It has published work by over 100 photographers, including John Benton-Harris, John Bulmer, John Claridge, John Deakin, Ken Grant, David Hurn, Chris Killip, Daniel Meadows, Tish Murtha, Jim Mortram, Martin Parr, Simon Roberts, Homer Sykes, Ed Templeton, Arthur Tress Janine Wiedel and Grant. In 2022 Café Royal Books held a retrospective exhibition titled Café Royal Books, Documentary, Zines and Subversion of 500 publications and 127 prints of work from those books at the Martin Parr Foundation. www.caferoyalbooks.com

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.

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 258 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on post-photography photography and how fakery has nothing to do with documentation of reality.

Plus this week, photographer Paul Hansen 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?’

Paul Hansen is a photojournalist based in Stockholm, Sweden. As a staff photographer for the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter his assignments and self-initiated projects, take him all over the world covering events in Haiti, Bosnia, Afghanistan as well as in Sweden. There is always one common denominator that links his work together and that is empathy. His visual storytelling has been awarded many domestic and international prizes and honours, including Picture of the Year two times and  Photographer of the Year in Sweden nine times. He was also awarded Photographer of the Year Newspaper in POYi 2010 and 2013, World Press Photo, 2012, a second place in Photographer of the Year in POYi 2015 and a second place in General News by World Press Photo 2016. In 2017 and 2018 he had two major exhibitions at the Fotografiska museum in Stockholm. In June 2019 he exhibited his photographs at the Sundsvalls museum in Sweden. www.paulhansenphotojournalism.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 the seventh 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 the personal project.

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.

Mentioned in this episode:

Richard Sharum: @Richard_sharum

Dr. Greg Gulbransen: @gulphoto

Gulnara Samoilova: @gulnara.samoilova & @womenstreetphotographers

Mary Ellen Mark: www.maryellenmark.com

Mark Steinmetz: www.marksteinmetz.net

Matt Black: www.mattblack.com

Dorethea Lange: www.moma.org/artists/3373

Ralph Gibson: www.ralphgibson.com

© Grant Scott 2023

In episode 256 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on two photographers who have recently passed and the reality of being commissioned by a national publisher.

Plus this week, photographer Dennis Dimick 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?’

Dennis Dimick is an American journalist, photographer, presenter and educator who grew up on a sheep and hay farm in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. He holds degrees in agriculture and agricultural journalism from Oregon State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and served for years as executive environment editor for National Geographic magazine, and was a picture editor for the National Geographic Society for more than 35 years until retiring in December 2015. He now serves in a consulting and reviewing role for the Society’s story-telling grant programme. Dimick is particularly interested in making visual the effects on earth of humanity's expanding presence in the emerging Anthropocene epoch and has written on these issues, and at National Geographic guided several major magazine projects on this idea. Between 2008-2012 he co-organised the Aspen Environment Forum and presented at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival and in 2015 moderated panels at the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China. Dimick has been a faculty member of the Missouri Photo Workshop for 23 years, and in 2013 received the Sprague Memorial Award from the National Press Photographers Association for outstanding service to photojournalism. His picture and environmental project editing has received many awards from Pictures of the Year International and the Society of Environmental Journalists, where he served on the board from 2016-2019. Dimick has served as a juror for the Heinz Foundation Awards, and the Pare Lorentz Award for the International Documentary Association and is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the International Center of Photography. http://dennis-dimick.squarespace.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 this special extended episode 251 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed speaking with photographer Matt Black. They discuss the tradition of the American road trip, the importance of stepping out of your comfort zone, politics and photography and the ethical responsibility of the visual storyteller amongst many other aspects of the American photographic tradition.

Matt Black lives in California’s Central Valley, a rural, agricultural area in the heart of the state. His work has focused on themes of geography, inequality, and the environment in his native region and in related places. Between 2015 and 2020, he travelled over 100,000 miles across 46 states for his project and subsequent book American Geography, named as one of TIME Magazine's top photography books in 2021. He is a member of Magnum and his work has appeared regularly in TIME magazine, The New Yorker, The California Sunday Magazine, and other publications. Back has been honoured three times by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Prize, including their top honour for journalism, he has received the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Award for Humanistic Photography and was named a senior fellow at the Emerson Collective. www.mattblack.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 254 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the seven ages of the photographer, making a photo book and photography's relationship with mindfulness.

Plus this week, photographer Juan Fable 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?’

Juan Fabuel studied photography at the University of Valencia, Spain and is currently studying for a PHD at the University of Murcia. His work uses different mediums such as photography, video, ceramics and installation to speak about movement, home and representation instigating dialogues between disciplines such as anthropology, politics, archaeology, physics and neuroscience. He has been exhibited in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, USA, Taipei and across Spain. It is also collected by museums and foundations across Europe. www.juanfabuel.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 253 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the mistakes made when staging a photography festival, the importance of developing a thick skin as a photographer and honesty in the world of generated photography.

Plus this week, photographer Landry Major 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?’

Landry Major's childhood summers were spent on a family dairy farm in Nova Scotia. Her ongoing series Keepers of the West takes her back to fields at dawn, and the family-run ranches of the American West.  She believes that visions of the American West have long been central to our culture, but the way of life of the cowboy and the family-run ranch is fast disappearing as over half of all family owned ranches in Montana are run by people over 65 and many of their children are not choosing to remain in ranching. The images she creates are made up of the places, people, and creatures that have welcomed her into their world to remind us of the arresting moments of grace and beauty found in a life lived under the wide-open western skies. Major's work has been widely exhibited including at the Griffin Museum of Photography Winchester and the J. Paul Getty Museum and she has received multiple awards. www.landrymajor.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 the sixth 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 the role of the photo mentor, the importance of mentorship, what to expect and how to successfully find the right one.

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.

Mentioned in this episode:

Maggie Steber: Steber is an American documentary photographer whose work has documented a wide range of issues, including the African slave trade, Native American issues in the United States, natural disasters, and science. www.maggiesteber.com

Raghu Rai: Rai is an Indian photographer and photojournalist, who was a protégé of Henri Cartier-Bresson, who appointed Rai, then a young photojournalist, to Magnum Photos in 1977. Rai became a photographer in 1965, and a year later joined the staff of The Statesman, a New Delhi publication. https://raghuraifoundation.org

Alex Harris: Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1949, Harris is an acclaimed photographer, Duke University professor, and Pulitzer Prize finalist for River of Traps. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

https://alex-harris.com

If you would like to read Bill's story about and with Raghu Rai and his photographer daughter, you can here: www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/a40288478/raghu-rai-avani-rai-photographer/

© Grant Scott 2023