A Photographic Life

In episode 232 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on photographer and photo editor Eamon McCabe, finding context to get paid and the positive and negative aspects of the photo community online.

Plus this week, photographer Jane Hilton 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?’

Jane Hilton is a London based photographer and filmmaker renowned for her work documenting American Culture, in particular the American West, which she has explored for the past twenty-five years. Her monographs include, 2010s Dead Eagle Trail depicting the lifestyle of the twenty-first century cowboy, 2013s Precious featuring intimate nude portraits of working girls in Nevada and most recently 2016s LA Gun Club exploring American gun culture with a collection of unique 'shot up' target posters. Hilton is fascinated by subjects that are legal, but not socially acceptable. In 2000 she was commissioned by the BBC to make a series of ten documentary films about two brothels in Nevada, titled Love for Sale, the only state in America where prostitution is legal. She was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2014 and chosen as one of the 'Hundred Heroines' representing internationally the most inspirational women in photography today. Her work has appeared in numerous major publications including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Telegraph Magazine and FT Magazine. Hilton's work is widely collected and exhibited with recent solo shows including, LA Gun Club, at the Eleven Gallery, London in 2016, American Cowboy at the Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York in 2015, Jane Hilton's America, at the Schilt Gallery, Amsterdam in 2014. She has spent the last five years filming the The Last Lion Tamer following a family's fight to save their lifestyle as the government intends to ban all wild animals performing in circuses. https://janehilton.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 2022

In this second episode of a new 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 importance of photographer's writing, the curse of art speak, considering audience, drowning in academic theory and communicating with clarity and understanding.

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.

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 2022

In episode 230 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on not shooting the messenger, good conduct for photography competition judges, and taking inspiration from photographers, photography and anywhere else you can find it!

Plus this week, photographer Roland Miller 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?’

Roland Miller is a Chicago native, who studied photography at Utah State University earning his B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees. For 14 years, he taught photography at Brevard Community College (now Eastern Florida State College) in Cocoa, Florida, where he was first exposed to the nearby NASA launch sites. He then taught at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois for six years before becoming dean of its Communication Arts, Humanities and Fine Arts division in 2008. In 2016, his project, Abandoned in Place: Preserving America’s Space History, documenting the deactivated and repurposed space launch and test facilities around the United Stated was published by the University of New Mexico Press. In 2017, Miller and Italian astronaut, Paolo Nespoli, completed a project collaboratively photographing the interior of the International Space Station. The project culminated in the publication of their book, Interior Space: A Visual Exploration of the International Space Station. Miller retired from higher education in 2018 to work full-time on his aerospace photography. Images from Miller’s Space Shuttle documentary project, Orbital Planes, have been exhibited at the Southeast Museum of Photography, Florida and at The National Museum of Naval Aviation, Florida. A book of these images, Orbital Planes: A Personal Vision of the Space Shuttle, was published in the Spring of 2022. Images from Miller’s space-related projects are included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois; the NASA Art Collection, Washington, DC, and numerous public and private collections. Miller’s work has been featured in National Geographic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, International Business Times, and numerous other national and international publications. www.abandonedinplace.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 2022

In episode 229 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on working with William Klein and the passing of too many photographers over too short a period of time.

Plus this week, photographer Richard Bram 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?’

Richard Bram was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1952 and is an American street photographer based in London. He attended Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona where he received a B.Sc. in political science and worked in business before becoming a professional photographer. Bram lived in Louisville, Kentucky, moving to London in 1997, then New York City in 2008, and back to London around 2016. Bram has published two books of candid public photographs: Street Photography (2006), a compact collection of black and white photographs taken around the world from 1988 to 2005; and New York (2016), a greatest-hits album of work made between 2005 and 2015 whilst living in New York City. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York, and the Museum of London, as well as having been exhibited internationally since 1991. He is represented by galleries in Mexico, Germany, France, and the USA. www.richardbramphoto.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 2022

In episode 228 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on embracing failure, how to judge photography competitions, not entering photography competitions and staying positive.

Plus this week, photographer Lise Johansson 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?’

Lise Johansson was born in 1985 and studied photography at the Media College, Viborg, Denmark and at the Vera – School of Art and Design, Copenhagen. She is describes herself as a visual artist and photographer whose starting point for her artistic practice is to create a sense of distorted reality, where the inspiration comes from the borderland that exists between the conscious and the unconscious. Her images often physical miniatures of landscapes and architectural spaces, combine with textures and objects photographed to use as building blocks in the editing process. Her work has been exhibited worldwide in London, Paris, Copenhagen and New York. In 2017 she received two awards at the Sony World Photography Awards and recently she won the title ‘Photographer of the Year 2020’ in the International Colour Awards and 1st Place in the 2021 International Photography Awards 2021 in the Fine Art category. Johnson currently lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. http://lisejohansson.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 2022

In this first episode of a new 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 gatekeepers and curators, how to approach them and how they should engage with photographers.

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.

In episode 226 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on overcoming obstacles, photographic anxiety, combining the personal and professional and the search for the new Instagram.

Plus this week, photographer Nicola Moorhead 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?’

Nicola Muirhead is a documentary photographer and visual storyteller from the island of Bermuda, who focuses on long-form projects and portraiture. Her practice is rooted in exploring the lived stories of individuals and communities as they exist in a time and place investigating how we as people construct our own narrative from collective memory, personal traumas, and historic events. Each body of work is undertaken with its own unique approach, incorporating a range of visual tools to convey the complexities of the human experience and the imprint of our stories on the world stage. Her projects are research-led and collaborative in approach, drawing from experts and testimonials of a community to narrate their story and their truth. Moorhead finished her Masters in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at the University of Arts London in 2017 and is based between London and Bermuda freelancing as a photographer for editorial, portrait and reportage assignments - as well as a visiting lecturer in photography. She is a member of London Creative Network, and Women Photograph, and part of a team of professional photographers running a supportive bi-monthly networking event called Photo Scratch. Nicola is also a founding member of the Collective Eye podcast - a grassroots / no-host podcast aimed at promoting engaging conversations in photography and beyond. https://nicolamuirhead.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 2022

In episode 225 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on posting images on Twitter, and working for free. He is also joined by photographer Jim Mortram to talk about his #PhotoPrintDay.

Plus this week, photographer Guy Dickinson 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?’

Born in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, Guy Dickinson trained as an Architect in London, winning a number of awards including the RIBA President's Medal. He has been an associate at John Pawson since 2003. The seeds of his tracing silence project, established in 2011, were sown during a 14 day immersion in the Yorkshire Moors in 1992. Experimenting with methods of construction, weaving, stitching, thatching and casting, he created a series of simple shelters that sought to unearth the intrinsic nature of the places he inhabited. Now utilising the mediums of photography and poetry, Guy's work continues to explore place, but also the consonance between internal and external passage, the similitude between the passage of thoughts and the passage of the body. He scours, combs and sifts, eyes shifting from foreground to background, from details to horizons, looking to tease out some essence of how we perceive the world around us. Recent work saunters from the sparse to the suffocating. Horizon, depth of field and perspective have been slowly relinquished in favour of texture, tone and surface. Developed through a cycling process of layering and distillation, these quietly cartographic fields invite us to look again at the landscape and the miry complexity of our place within it. His book Passage was published by Another Place press in 2022. www.tracingsilence.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 2022

In episode 224 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on who decides if images are low quality and how, the importance of research in making images, Annie Leibovitz's Ukraine portraits and words on photography that make no sense.

Plus this week, photographer Sean Lotman 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?’

A native of Los Angeles, California, Sean Lotman has lived in Japan, first in Tokyo, then in Kyoto, since 2003. Lotman draws his inspiration from narrative fiction as well as cinema, his palette honoring the unreal colours of Technicolor films from the 1940s and 1950s. He creates the psychedelic atmosphere in his work through liberal colour experimentation and an unorthodox dodge-and-burn technique in his darkroom. While printing his images, he is searching for a subjective feeling more resembling reverie than reality. His background is in narrative fiction, and his short stories, essays and poetry have been published online and in print. His first photo book, Sunlanders, was published in 2016, featuring colour darkroom prints made by his own hand. Sean is represented by Galerie Agathe Gaillard in Paris, France and Ibasho in Antwerp, Belgium and he is a member of the photo collective And the Last Waves. The Sniper Paused So He Could Wipe His Brow is his fourth book and was published in 2022. He lives in Kyoto, Japan, with his wife, Ariko, their son, Tennbo, and their dog, Monk. www.seanlotman.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 2022

In episode 221 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the ethics of photographing children, making a living from photography and welcoming the non-photographer photographers to photography.

Plus this week, photographer Sodiq Adelakun 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?’

Sodiq Adelakun is a Nigerian photojournalist, based in Abuja who started out in photography in 2001 by assisting in a photo studio owned by his father in Lagos, Nigeria while finishing his degree in Psychology at University of Ibadan. In 2011 he decided to specialise in photojournalism after attending a course in photojournalism at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism which was co-facilitated by the World Press Photo Foundation. Sodiq progressed to intern at one of Nigeria’s leading newspapers, The Punch where he won several awards, including the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Journalism in 2011, the Quill Awards for Best Photo Story of the Year in 2013 the NB Golden Pen Awards for Photojournalist of the Year in 2016 and the Nigeria Media Merit Award for News Photographer of the Year. His photo series Afraid To Go To School was awarded a winning prize under the stories category for the African region at the World Press Photo Regional Awards in the year 2022 Photo Contest. Between 2019-2022, Sodiq was a Photo Editor at Channels TV Digital, the biggest TV Station in Nigeria. This position  allowed him to sharpen his skills as an editor, as well as handle stock photographs for the TV’s website, production and for archival usage. Whilst working for Channels, he became an AFP photo correspondent based in Abuja covering events such as the presidential elections in 2019, the EndSARS protests, the mass kidnapping of children, and the bloody Shiaa protests. His work was featured in publications and online within The New York Times, Bloomberg, BBC, CNN, Amnesty International, Le Monde. He has also been commissioned by international organisations such as the European Union (EU), and the United Nations (UN). www.sodiqadelakun.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 2022