A Photographic Life

In episode 180 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on analogue photography in a digital world.

Plus this week photographer James Oatway 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?’

James Oatway was born in 1978 in South Africa and grew up in Phalaborwa, a small copper mining town. He graduated from Rhodes University with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in 2000 before working as the Chief Photographer and Picture Editor of the Sunday Times newspaper. His work revolves predominantly around themes of social inequality and people affected by conflict and together with photographer Alon Skuy, Oatway published a photographic book about xenophobic violence in South Africa called [BR]OTHER, published in 2021 and he is the co-author of The Battle of Bangui also published in 2021. Oatway works extensively on the African continent and often collaborates with humanitarian organisations such as UNICEF, UNHCR and Médicins Sans Frontières. His work has been published in The Guardian, Stern, Internazionale, Le Monde, TIME, Paris-Match, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The LA Times and others. Oatway has received various international awards including multiple Pictures of the Year International awards. In 2015 he was named the South African Journalist of the Year and in 2018 his Red Ants project won the Visa d’or Feature Award at the Visa Pour l’image Photojournalism Festival in Perpignan, France. He has taught documentary photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg and is affiliated to Panos Pictures in London. www.jamesoatway.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’s book What Does Photography Mean to You? including 89 photographers who have contributed to the A Photographic Life podcast is on sale now £9.99 https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/

© Grant Scott 2021

In episode 179 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed dedicating this week's episode to the photographer Colin Jones, and reflecting on supporting child refugees through photography, the need for clear and simple language in communication, and inclusion through events being held online.

Plus this week photographer Dan Burn-Forti 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?’

Dan Burn-Forti was born in Mortlake, West London.  Age 14, he began taking pictures with his mother's Fujica SLR and, after a little assisting and three slightly wasted years studying photography at Middlesex Polytechnic, he has worked ever since primarily in the fields of editorial and advertising photography.  His work spans a range of subjects including everything from celebrity portraiture to animals, reportage to cars, but his work is linked by a love for the absurdness of human beings and the incongruous oddness of modern life.  Over the years his pictures have appeared in numerous publications such as The Observer, Wired, Esquire, Tatler and The Sunday Telegraph.  These days he is increasingly working in the advertising field, having shot many global campaigns for a range of clients that includes Mercedes, HSBC, Sony, John Lewis, VW, Channel 4 and Nike.  In recent years he has also worked as a director, having directed a number of TV commercials for clients such as O2, MINI and Bulldog. Outside of his commissioned work, his passion is for unconstructed observed photography, work that has appeared in two self-published books titled Go Away and Golden Sun.  Burn-Forti has won many awards including The AOP Awards, The Taylor Wessing Prize, Creative Review Awards, Photo District News, the Creative Circle, Communication Arts and The American Photography Awards. www.danburnforti.com

Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019).

Grant’s book What Does Photography Mean to You? including 89 photographers who have contributed to the A Photographic Life podcast is on sale now £9.99 https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/

© Grant Scott 2021

In episode 178 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on those that are chosen to decide the future of photography, narrative photographic fiction and the reality of NFTs.

Plus this week photographer Carol Golemboski 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?’

Carol Golemboski received an MFA in Photography from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1999 and an MA in Art from The University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996. She has been the recipient of numerous grants including individual artist fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Saltonstall Foundation and Light Work. Her Psychometry series won the 2007 Project Competition Award from Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Golemboski's images have been published internationally in textbooks and notable photographic journals in the United States, China, France, Spain, Austria and Sweden. She is an Associate Professor and the Area head of Photography at the University of Colorado Denver. In 2013 Golemboski released an interactive artist's book as an iPad app called "Psychometry." It was selected as one of the twelve Outstanding Books of 2013 by the Independent Publisher Book Awards, winning the category of "Outstanding eBook Achievement." Golemboski is represented by the Robert Klein Gallery in Boston and Kevin Longino, Fine Photographs. www.carolgolemboski.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).

’s book What Does Photography Mean to You? including 89 photographers who have contributed to the A Photographic Life podcast is on sale now £9.99 https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/

© Grant Scott 2021

In episode 177 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the end of summer and new beginnings, not getting confused by social media, connections and community.

Plus this week photographer J.M. Golding 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?’

J. M. Golding is a San Francisco-based photographic artist. She received her first camera as a birthday gift at age 7, a Brownie, that she still has and occasionally uses, and she took her first darkroom class at a summer day camp at age 11. Golding's photographs have been shown internationally in numerous juried and invitational group exhibitions, and she is the recipient of the 2013 Holga Inspire Award, the 2009 Lúz Gallery Curator’s Choice Award, the Best of Show in the 2017 Wanderlust  in collaboration with photographer Al Brydon, the first juror’s award in the 2021 Fantastic Film, and several Honorable Mentions in numerous juried exhibitions. Her work has also appeared in several books and in magazines such as Diffusion, Shots,  Analog Forever, Fraction, Square, Black & White, and Insight, and on websites including Don’t Take Pictures, Inside the Outside, and The Holga Darkroom. www.jmgolding.com

Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019).

Grant’s book What Does Photography Mean to You? including 89 photographers who have contributed to the A Photographic Life podcast is on sale now £9.99 https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/

© Grant Scott 2021

In episode 176 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on exploring the breadth of photography, taken over shops on the high street, construction versus deconstruction, avoiding negative introspection and the importance of audience.

Plus this week photographer Paul Wakefield 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?’

photographer out of a passion for nature, landscape and photography, developing a keen eye for detail from an early age, while trekking with his father in the hills of the Chinese New territories searching for birds, butterflies and snakes. He has followed a photographic trajectory marked by working outdoors often in challenging locations and won many awards for his commissions from International Advertising Agencies including a D&AD Silver Award and AOP Gold & Silver Awards among many others. He was nominated for the Prix Pictet in 2021 and his work has been exhibited in numerous galleries including The Photographers Gallery London, Saatchi Gallery, London and the Kodak Gallery Tokyo. Wakefield has published five books of photographs, three in collaboration with the travel writer Jan Morris. His monograph The Landscape won 1st Place at The International Photography Awards 2014. His next book of Signs of Devotion is to be published in India and the UK in 2022. www.paulwakefield.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).

Grant’s book What Does Photography Mean to You? including 89 photographers who have contributed to the A Photographic Life podcast is on sale now £9.99 https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/

© Grant Scott 2021

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

Plus this week photographer Kristina Varaksina on the challenge of supplying Grant with an audio file no longer than 5 minutes in length in which she answer’s the question ‘What Does Photography Mean to You?’

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

Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019).

Grant’s book What Does Photography Mean to You? including 89 photographers who have contributed to the A Photographic Life podcast is on sale now £9.99 https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/

© Grant Scott 2021

In episode 174 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on how big business impacts on the photographic commission, who photography festival's are aimed at and the courage of conflict photographers.

Plus this week photographer Claire Thomas 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?’

Claire Thomas is a photojournalist and fine art photographer from Wales, currently based between London and New York. A graduate in Politics from the University of the West of England, her photojournalism work is focused on issues surrounding political and military conflicts, human rights, and humanitarian and environmental crises. From within the camps that emerged from the refugee crisis in Europe to the frontlines in the battle against ISIS in Iraq, Thomas has covered a range of stories in various countries, contributing images and photo essays to leading newspapers, magazines and news agencies worldwide. Her editorial clients include The New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, National Geographic Magazine, and Al Jazeera among others. She works regularly with United Nations agencies and international non-governmental organisations including UNDP, UNHCR, Amnesty International, OXFAM and Save the Children. Thomas's work has been shortlisted for a number of awards including Photojournalist of the Year at the 2017 Press Gazette British Journalism Awards, Photo Essay of the Year in the 2018 UK Picture Editors’ Guild Awards, the 2018 Amnesty International UK Media Awards Photojournalism category, and Women Photograph 2019 Year in Pictures. A keen horse rider, motorcyclist, adventurer and nature enthusiast, she has undertaken several independent photography projects in diverse and remote corners of the world, including Alaska, Wyoming, Lesotho, Mozambique and more recently Mongolia where she photographed the iconic Kazakh eagle hunters of the Altai mountains. Claire is trained in battlefield first aid and surviving hostile environments. www.clairethomasphotography.com

Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019).

Grant’s book What Does Photography Mean to You? including 89 photographers who have contributed to the A Photographic Life podcast is on sale now £9.99 https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/

© Grant Scott 2021

In episode 173 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the importance of respect and authenticity in documenting tragedy, explaining best practice to clients and finding connections when finding and creating new work.

Plus this week photographer Steve Reeves 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?’

Steve Reeves was born in Ilford, Essex but has lived for most of his life in South London. He studied for a year at art school in the East End of London before securing a job at a large American Advertising agency as a copywriter where he worked for several years before moving into film directing.  He has directed several short films, commercials and a feature film titled Keeping Rosy starring the British actor Maxine Peake. Steve continues to work as a director but has become interested in photography and documenting the diverse community around his home in South London, with street portraits and accompanying interviews that celebrate the spirit and humanity of the strangers that he meets. His images are spontaneous, taken as soon as he meets the person he wishes to photograph, with the accompanying interviews written from brief notes taken while talking to and photographing the subject. Reeves says that these interviews are as important as the images themselves, and he hopes to produce and publish a book of these street portraits and the accompanying interviews. https://stevereevesphotographer.com

Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019).

Grant’s book What Does Photography Mean to You? including 89 photographers who have contributed to the A Photographic Life podcast is on sale now £9.99 https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/

© Grant Scott 2021

In episode 172 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on emotions and memory within photography, the importance of the family album and how life informs who we are and what we photograph.

Plus this week photographer Yukari Chikura 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?’

Yukari Chikura was born in Tokyo, Japan. After graduating from Music University, she became a music composer, computer programmer, designer and photographer. As a young photographer Chikura has already won many prizes, among others the Photolucida Critical Mass Top50 Winner in 2016 and 2015, the International Photography Award and the Sony World Photography Awards. She has held solo exhibitions in Japan, and group exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide. Her work is collected by the Griffin Photography Museum in US, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and K*MoPA (the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts). Chikura is the winner of Steidl Book Award 2016 and her work from her series ZAIDO was published by STEIDL, in 2020.  Her work has been published in the New York Times and is held in collections including the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris and the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts. Chikura has been honored at the LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards, the International Photography Awards, Critical Mass and the Sony World Photography Awards, among others. In 2015 she was artist in residence at the Mt. Rokko International Photo Festival. http://yukari.chikura.me

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 Scott 2021

In episode 171 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on mentorship, teaching and the passing on of information. He also provides his final found rules for life.

Plus this week photographer Peter Fraser 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?’

Peter Fraser bought his first camera at the age of 7 and went to school in Wales until 1971, when he left to study Civil Engineering for three months at Hatfield Polytechnic, before deciding to study photography at Manchester Polytechnic between 1972 and 1976, repeating his final year due to becoming seriously ill crossing the Sahara Desert in early 1975. Fraserwas an early adopter of colour photography in the UK, and began exhibiting colour photographs in 1982. In 1984, he travelled to Memphis, USA to spend two months with William Eggleston, after meeting him at Eggleston's first UK exhibition opening the previous year. Between 1983 and 1986, Fraser made the exhibitions, Twelve Day Journey, The Valleys Project, Everyday Icons and Towards an Absolute Zero which led to his first publication Two Blue Buckets in 1988. This book won the Bill Brandt Award hosted by the Photographers' Gallery in 1989. In 1990 Fraser was invited to be the British Artist in Residence in Marseilles, which led to the subsequent exhibition and publication Ice and Water. He travelled widely in the early 1990s to scientific research establishments photographing machines at the cutting edge of technology, proposing a series of ‘Portraits’ of machines shown and published as Deep Blue. While visiting nearly 60 scientific sites, he frequently photographed in scientific ‘Clean Rooms’ where particles of dust above a certain size were not admitted. Subsequently, he decided to start photographing ‘dirt and other low status’ material. Simultaneous to this work was a University of Strathclyde commission to make new Art in their Applied Physics Department. This led to two series being combined into a single new series of photographs, Material published in 2002. The same year The Photographers' Gallery showed a 20-year overview of Fraser’s work, and in 2004 he was shortlisted alongside Robert Adams, David Goldblatt and Joel Sternfeld for the Citigroup International Photography Prize. In 2006 Fraser was invited to be an Artist in Residence at Oxford University to make photography for the Biochemistry Department. In 2009 he was commissioned by Ffotogallery, Wales, to make work across the country that resulted in the exhibition and publication Lost For Words. In 2012 Fraser exhibited A City in the Mind at the Brancolini Grimaldi Gallery, London. In 2013 Tate St Ives exhibited a selected retrospective of his work, and published a monograph containing photographs from all of Fraser's major series to date. In 2013 Fraser received an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society. In 2017 his exhibition Mathematics was exhibited as part of PhotoEspana 17, and Skinnerboox, Italy, published Mathematics. The first UK exhibition of Mathematics opened at Camden Arts Centre, London in 2018. The accompanying File Notes no 120 published by the gallery, featured a specially commissioned essay The Things that Count by Amy Sherlock, deputy editor of Frieze. www.peterfraser.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).

© Grant Scott 2021