A Photographic Life

In episode 199 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on creativity, working as a photographer, and if NFTs are the result of a perfect storm or just a passing squall.

Plus this week photographer Mike Abrahams 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 1952 in South Africa Abrahams moved to Liverpool in 1955 and grew up there. Aged 12, he discovered the magic of the darkroom under the stairs in a friend’s house and became hooked on photography. In 1970 after failing to get into medical school he enrolled on a dentistry course in the hope that he could switch to medicine but he was expelled after just two terms. In 1972 he enrolled on a photography course at the Polytechnic of Central London and discovered Henri Cartier Bresson, Don McCullin, Leonard Freed, Robert Capa and Marc Riboud who had visited the course to show his work which Abrahams found transforming. In 1975 he began working as a freelance photographer with the Times, Sunday Times, Sunday Times Magazine, The Telegraph, The Observer Magazine, and started to work with international magazines and newspapers, covering stories in Southern Africa, Gaza, Cyprus, Israel, Eastern Europe, Northern Ireland, the UK as well as portraits of those in the arts and literature. In 1981 he was a co-founder of Network Photographers the internationally renowned picture agency. His work on Faith - A Journey with Those Who Believe, published in 2000, was the culmination of five years work, documenting the extremes and passion of Christian devotion throughout fourteen countries. Other important assignments have included coverage of the division of Cyprus, the Intifada in the Occupied Territories, the Berlin Wall, the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the rise in the influence of the religious in Israeli politics, the Cult of Assad in Syria, The Jews of Damascus and Bradford's Muslims and The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Awards for this work included the World Press Photo Award in 2000, the book Faith was a finalist in the Design Week Awards and the work has been widely exhibited throughout the UK and Europe. Cafe Royal Books have published six books of his work in 2022 and his work from Northern Ireland was published as Still War - Photographs From The North of Ireland in 1989. His work has been widely exhibited and is held in the Museum of London and Science and Media Museum, London. Abrahams current landscape work has been exploring the relationship between structures and their environment and he is based in London. www.mikeabrahams.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 2022

Meet Bill Jay, evangelist, bible salesman, photographer, editor, writer, curator, lecturer, historian, instigator, provocateur, teacher, mentor and rattlesnake shooter, Bill Jay was all of these and more. A man whose influence on photography in the UK and US from the mid-sixties until his death in Costa Rica in 2009 cannot be underestimated.

In 2018 the film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol, UK. It was the culmination of two years work. A film made by just two people, myself, and filmmaker Tim Pellatt. The team that created the film was as small as the budget. It was a self-funded project with no additional financial support and yet its impact within the photographic community in both the UK and US belied its humble origins.

Bill Jay had been forgotten and dismissed by many talking of the photographic history of the late 20th Century in the UK. UNP founder and curator Grant Scott sought to find out why and to put the record straight.

In this podcast series Scott tell's Bill Jay's story and that of his own journey searching for the truth surrounding Jay's life. Featuring new interviews and material not included in the film, this podcast aims to place Jay into his rightful place within the written photographic history of the late 20th Century.

www.unitednationsofphotography.com

www.donotbendfilm.com

www.cordialav.co.uk

www.lauraritchie.com

http://grantcampbell.co.uk

© Grant Scott 2022

In episode 198 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on a considered response to the podcast and hearing from Jim Mortram about #PhotoPrintDay.

Plus this week photographer Alen MacWeeney 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 Dublin in 1939, Alen MacWeeney became a press photographer for a local newspaper in 1952. One of his earliest bodies of work was of the semi-nomadic Irish travellers, images that were also turned into a movie, broadcast on RTÉ and BBC 4, and included in Itinérances, 28th Festival Cinéma d’Alès, which MacWeeney co-directed. MacWeeney left Ireland and moved to New York in 1961 to assist Richard Avedon. His work was getting noticed, resulting in them being shown in the Museum Of Modern Art. After working on glamorous shoots for influential titles such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar in Paris and New York City, MacWeeney had become disenchanted with the highly stylised nature and limitations of studio photography, and was becoming more interested and influenced by the work of documentary photographers such as Robert Frank and he returned to Ireland in late 1962. He then began an extensive career in commercial and editorial photography. His personal work from the mid-1960s capture the misty streets and cozy pubs of Dublin with Joycean affection. There are also sprawling country landscape views with flocks of sheep and ancient cairns. MacWeeney's best-known work from this period is his series and book Travellers: Tinkers No More. At a time when this centuries-old itinerant culture shifted from horse-drawn conveyance to motor-hauled caravans, the he explored their makeshift camps with his camera and tape recorder. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Art Institute of Chicago. MacWeeney’s photographs have appeared internationally in magazines and books: among them, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, G.Q., Life, The World of Interiors, American Photographer, and Aperture, amongst many others. His work has been published books including: Irish Walls; & Ireland, Stone Walls and Fabled Landscapes, Bloomsbury Reflections, Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Garden, The Home of the Surrealists, Spaces for Silence, Irish Travellers, Tinkers No More, Once Upon a Time in Tallaght, and, Under the Influence. MacWeeney's archive resides at Cork University and he lives in New York and Sag Harbor, with annual travels to Ireland. www.alenmacweeney.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 2022

In episode 197 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the changing artefacts of photography, the importance of controlling your reputation and how a magazine can too easily misread its audience.

Plus this week photographer Bradley G. Munkowitz (GMUNK) 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?’

Bradley G. Munkowitz, popularly known as GMUNK, is a prolific Berkley-based director, designer and artist who works not only in motion design and animation, but also in graphic design, experiential design, live action direction, photography, psychedelic design, installation art, robotics, projection mapping, LED, and more. In his teenage years, he started with sculpture and ceramics, and then in college moved onto filmmaking, before taking graphic design classes at Humboldt State University where he started using After Effects and Flash to make interactive experiences – merging video, design and audio cues to create something interesting and fresh. Once out of college he worked as a Flash animator / video editor and worked in motion design for the next 10 years at studios in Los Angeles and Australia including with the master of film titles Kyle Cooper. He then moved into directing commercials, whilst still working on experiential projects and photography. An innovator in 3D digital art using his photographs as starting points for his finished work his clients include. Microsoft, Nike, Audi, Maserati, Sony, Hyundai, Hummer, HBO, Adidas, Samsung, and Uber. https://gmunk.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 2022

In episode 196 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on whether or not you need to read Susan Sontag, people trying to get photography on the cheap and he suggests some health considerations for photographers based on his own experience.

Plus this week photographer Andreas Weinand 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?’

Andreas Weinand was born in 1958 in the Rheine region of Germany, and is now based in Berlin. 

He studied photography at the University GHS Essen (Folkwang), graduating in 1990 and his photography is primarily engaged with research concerning personal identities and the exploration of relationships between the individual presenting his/her personality and the society to which he/she engages with. Between 1985 to 1995 he concentrated on three projects: Deutsche Volksfeste, Colossal Youth and Reflecting Oneself. Weinand's work has been exhibited extensively including exhibitions in Denmark, Belgium, Canada, Russia, Italy and Germany and represented in numerous public collections. Three book of his images have been published The Good Earth, Colossal Youth and Stadt Land Mensch. www.andreasweinand.de

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/

Podcast music: Written and performed by Dr. Laura Ritchie www.lauraritchie.com

© Grant Scott 2022

In episode 195 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the use of the word photography, the role of photojournalism and the evolution of the photographic agent.

Plus this week photographer Ruth Lauer Manenti take's 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?’

Ruth Lauer Manenti received an MFA from The Yale School of Art in painting and drawing in 1994 and in 2012, she was given a large format camera and taught herself how to use it. Since breaking her neck in a car crash at the age of twenty, she has developed a spiritual life and practice that has propelled much of her photographic work. Gradually she accomplished what she was striving for in drawing and painting, through photography. Her mother was also an artist who left behind a legacy of unknown work and part of Ruth’s determination as an artist is to reward her mother for her efforts and to create a continuum. She was awarded a NYFA grant in photography in 2016 and had a solo exhibition at The Center for Photography in Woodstock, NY in 2020. Her book Alms was exhibited at The Griffin Museum of Photography and Manenti received an Honourable Mention in the 2021 Julia Margaret Cameron Award and 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts in Photography. She lives in the Catskill Mountains in New York with her husband and 3 cats. www.ruthlauermanenti.com

Dr. Grant Scott is the 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).

Podcast music: Written and performed by Dr. Laura Ritchie www.lauraritchie.com

© Grant Scott 2022

In episode 194 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on photography as evidence of important events, what it takes to get commissioned and why you don't need to buy more cameras and lenses.

Plus this week photographer Frederic Aranda take's 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?’

Self-taught portrait photographer Frederic Aranda was born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1980 and came to the UK over 20 years ago to undertake a degree in Japanese at Oxford University. He has been based in London ever since and is known for a colourful but pared-down form of portraiture and group portraits for clients such as Vanity Fair and Patek Philippe, Harrods. Two books of his work have been published, Electric Fashion in 2017 and California Elegance: Portraits From the Final Frontier in 2021. He has had three solo exhibitions of his work in London, the most recent of which was in the Raphael Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Aranda was given a Fellowship to the Royal Photographic Society in 2021 and his work has also been recognised by the International Photography Awards, the RPS International Photography Exhibition and The Swiss Photo Award. Aranda was also a finalist in the Sony World Photography Awards and the Aesthetica Art Prize. Last year his work was part of a group show on Holocaust Survivors living in the UK at the Imperial War Museum, London. https://fredericaranda.com

Dr. Grant Scott is the 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).

Podcast music: Written and performed by Dr. Laura Ritchie www.lauraritchie.com

© Grant Scott 2022

In episode 193 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the difference between an amateur and professional photography, the need for a new photography TV series and the challenges photography could face in 2022.

Plus this week photographer Art Streiber take's 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?’

Art Streiber is an American portrait photographer best known for his portraits of entertainment and sports personalities. Streiber studied at Stanford University, graduated in 1984, and has been based in his hometown of Los Angeles since 1994. He is a regular contributor to the major Hollywood studios and networks, having shot posters and related promotional collateral for ABC, CBS, NBC, HBO, MTV, Universal Studios, DreamWorks, and Sony Pictures. Streiber has also photographed behind the scenes at the Academy Awards every year since 2000 to the present day, excluding 2009. In 2005, American Photo magazine named him one of the '100 Most Important People in Photography' and in 2008, the Pacific Design Center in California presented Streiber with the Star of Design Award for photography. Streiber lectures and teaches frequently and is represented by Giant Artists. www.artstreiber.com

Dr.Grant Scott is the 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).

Podcast music: Written and performed by Dr. Laura Ritchie www.lauraritchie.com

© Grant Scott 2022

In this extended episode, editor, writer and curator of photography Bill Shapiro looks back, and forward with Grant at the dominant themes within photography of 2021 including: is humanist photography coming back? Is street photography over? What's after Instagram? Online exhibitions and experiences, photography as evidence, archives and the cloud, and yes, NFTs! Grant also marks the passing of the photographers we have lost in 2021.

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.

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 foto8 magazine, 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 2022

In episode 191 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Happy Holidays, whilst not taking things too seriously.

Plus this week curator, editor, and photographic consultant Zelda Cheatle take's 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?’

Zelda Cheatle’s life in photography and the arts has encompassed being a photographer, gallerist, publisher, curator, lecturer and author. She began her gallery career at The Photographers’ Gallery, London working with internationally renowned photographers and emerging British artists using photography. In 1989, she started the Zelda Cheatle Gallery, first in Cecil Court, WC2 , then Mount Street W.1 and finally in Shoreditch until 2005, where, she exhibited important work by British and international artists – including Helen Chadwick, Eve Arnold, Berenice Abbott, Sarah Moon, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Lee Miller, Robert Frank and Abbas Kiarostami among many others. Her gallery also consistently showed young and emerging artists and the Zelda Cheatle Press published monographs of contemporary British artists and photographers. As lead curator for the World Photography Organisation for many years, Cheatle has spoken extensively about photography and its place as fine art. Her recent photographic exhibitions include Cecil Beaton in both the State Hermitage, St Petersburg and Blenheim Palace; Yan Wang Preston in China; photography from the Gulf countries exhibited in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the Dubai Photo Exhibition comprising 868 photo works. She began and managed the first Photography Fund, that collected, exhibited and published a collection of over 6,000 iconic prints including a Russian 20th century collection, Eve Arnolds vintage archive and icons and masterpieces of the European and American schools. She is an Honorary Fellow at the University of the Arts Bournemouth, a Member of the Council of Friends, National Gallery of Ireland and has been on the Advisory Committee, Photo Shanghai, Chair of judges, Kraszna Krausze book Award and a Nominator for the Deutsche Borse and Prix Pictet competitions. Zelda Cheatle continues to curate exhibitions and publish, review and challenge photography. www.zeldacheatle.com

Dr.Grant Scott is the 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).

Comedy Extracts:

Hancock's Half Hour: The Photographer, Series 6 Episode 8. 1960

People Like Us: The Photographer, Series 1, Episode 2. 1999

The Sketch Show, Series 1, Episode 6. 2001

Podcast music: Written and performed by Dr. Laura Ritchie www.lauraritchie.com

© Grant Scott 2021