A Photographic Life

In episode 43 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering the excitement of discovering lost archives and lost images, recommends two recent documentaries and reflects upon how the past fifty years of American photography could have been so different. 

Plus this week photographer Marc Wilson 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 London, 1968, Marc Wilson lives in Bath, England and his photography documents the memories and histories that are set in the landscapes that surround us. His current work in progress, A Wounded Landscape, begun in 2015, documents the geography of the Holocaust, based around a small number of stories, with locations in over 20 different countries throughout Europe and the former Soviet Republics. His previous work, The Last Stand, was researched and photographed over a four year period, and looks at some of the remaining Second World War military coastal defences around the coastlines of Northern Europe, from Norway to the Franco-Spanish border and The Northern Isles of the UK. The work was an award winner at The Terry O’Neill Awards in 2013 and was published as a book in late 2014. Marc's work has been exhibited at The Royal Armouries Museum, Focalpoint Gallery and The Anise Gallery, London and included in group shows at The Photographers Gallery and the Association of Photographers Gallery, London, the Athens PhotoFestival, 2015 and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2018. His work has been published in journals and magazines ranging from The British Journal of Photography and Raw to Wired and Dezeen. www.marcwilson.co.uk.

You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast and Spotify spotify:show:4oOnPplYSeCKIYqopCK3ra

Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer in Professional Photography at the University of Gloucestershire, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His next book New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019. He is currently work on his next documentary film project Woke Up This Morning: The Rock n' Roll Thunder of Ray Lowry www.wokeupthismorningfilm.com.

His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay has been screened across the UK and the US in 2018 and will be screened in the US and Canada in 2019.

© Grant Scott 2019

In episode 42 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering the sacrifices photographers make to create work and the commitment required from friends and family to support those dedicated to the medium. 

You can read the full article featuring Don McCullin and Giles Duley mentioned in this week's podcast here www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/feb/03/don-mccullin-giles-duley-photography-retrospective-tate-interview

Plus this week photographer Brian Griffin 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?’

Brian Griffin was born in 1948 and lives and works in London. Considered “the photographer of the decade” by The Guardian in 1989, “the most unpredictable and influential British portrait photographer of the last decades” by the British Journal of Photography in 2005 and “one of Britain’s most influential photographers” by the World Photography Organisation in 2015, Brian has worked as a freelance photographer, filmmaker and TV commercials and music video film director since 1972.

Brian Griffin has published over thirty books and was awarded the Best Photography book in the World at the Barcelona Primavera Fotografica 1991. Life magazine used his photograph A Broken Frame on the front cover of its supplement The Greatest Photographs Of The 80’s. In 1991, after twenty years, he “walked away from photography” and began a career creating advertising commercials and music videos. He returned to photography in 2002 and has had more than fifteen solo shows and four retrospectives since. Brian has won many awards including four ‘Most Outstanding Awards’ from the D&AD (Design and Art Direction), and the ‘Freedom of the City of Arles, France’. He won the ‘Best Commercial of the Year’ at the Bafta Academy awards in 1992 and his short movie Claustrofoamia received the ‘Golden Monkey Award’ for Best Film at the Mons International Short Film Festival in Belgium and the ‘Certificate of Merit’ at the Chicago International Film Festival, both in 1995.

In September 2013, Brian received the ‘Centenary Medal’ from the Royal Photographic Society in recognition of a lifetime achievement in photography. In 2014, he received an Honorary Doctorate by Birmingham City University for his lifetime contribution to the City of Birmingham. Brian Griffin’s photographs are held in the permanent collections of major art institutions including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Arts Council of Great Britain, London; the British Council, London; the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Museum Folkwang, Essen; the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; the Art Museum Reykjavik, Iceland; the Mast Foundation, Bologna; and the Museu da Imagem, Braga, Portugal. www.briangriffin.co.uk

You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast

Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer in Professional Photography at the University of Gloucestershire, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His next book New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019. He is currently work on his next documentary film project Woke Up This Morning: The Rock n' Roll Thunder of Ray Lowry.

His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay has been screened across the UK and the US in 2018 and will be screened in the US and Canada in 2019.

© Grant Scott 2019

In episode 41 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering the importance of research in creating a personal project, visual storytelling and ensuring stories reach out of the photographic community.

Plus this week photographer Amy Romer 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?’

Amy Romer is a British documentary photographer, currently based in Vancouver, Canada. Her work is concerned with human rights, social issues and the environment, covering stories such as modern day slavery and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Romer has recently been been awarded a grant as a National Geographic Explorer to support Her project The Last Salmon Run will explore the decline of wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest throughout 2019. Romer has appeared in an number of magazines and newspapers, including The Guardian, The Sunday Times Magazine and Montecristo Magazine. She is best known for her long-form documentary project The Dark Figure, which documents UK neighbourhoods affected by modern day slavery. The Dark Figure will be published in 2019 by, Another Place Press. She is the winner of the 2017 PhotoVoice competition and was awarded an Honorary Mention for two categories at the 2017 International Photo Awards (IPA). www.amyromer.com

You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast

Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer in Professional Photography at the University of Gloucestershire, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His next book New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019. He is currently work on his next documentary film project Woke Up This Morning: The Rock n' Roll Thunder of Ray Lowry.

His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay has been screened across the UK and the US in 2018 and will be screened in the US and Canada in 2019.

© Grant Scott 2019

In episode 41 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering paid for portfolio reviews, working for free and commissioned photography. 

Plus this week photographer Margaret Mitchell 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?’

Margaret Mitchell is based in Glasgow, Scotland, and studied photography at Edinburgh Napier University. She has been working as a photographer for over twenty years and her overarching interest lies in people and their stories, with childhood, youth, place and belonging often explored in the people and places photographed. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at Somerset House, London, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh and the National Portrait Gallery, London as part of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. She is the recipient of both national and international awards including the Sony World Photography Awards (2nd place Professional: Contemporary Issues, 2018), The Royal Photographic Society’s IPE160 (Gold Award, 2017) and the LensCulture Portrait Awards (finalist, 2017). Her work is held in the collection at the National Galleries of Scotland. https://margaretmitchell.co.uk

You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast

Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer in Professional Photography at the University of Gloucestershire, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His next book New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019. He is currently work on his next documentary film project. He is currently work on his next documentary film project Woke Up This Morning: The Rock n' Roll Thunder of Ray Lowry.

His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay has been screened across the UK and the US in 2018 and will be screened in the US and Canada in 2019.

© Grant Scott 2019

In episode 39 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering photographers writing and talking about their work and creating an end goal for a project before you start.

Plus this week photographer Michael Jackson 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?’

Michael Jackson is an acclaimed contemporary British photographer, best known for his many years photographing a single beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, Poppit Sands and for pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the luminogram process. Michael studied painting at West Dean College, West Sussex, England but after moving from oil paints to charcoal he finally discovered photography. For Michael photography is a “release valve” and “The end of the creative idea.” He uses film based equipment and often photographs his subject at night, creating his abstracted images in his shed based darkroom. His work has been exhibited internationally and he is a three times Hasselblad Masters Award finalist. He is represented by Represented by MMX Gallery in U.K. , Duncan Miller Gallery in Los Angeles and PhotoEye Gallery in Santa Fe, USA. www.mgjackson.co.uk

You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast

Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer in Professional Photography at the University of Gloucestershire, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His next book New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019. He is currently work on his next documentary film project. He is currently work on his next documentary film project Woke Up This Morning: The Rock n' Roll Thunder of Ray Lowry.

His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay has been screened across the UK and the US in 2018 and will be screened in the US and Canada in 2019.

© Grant Scott 2019

In episode 38 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering our expectations of personal websites and the relationship between insecurity and creativity.

Plus this week photographer Robert Darch 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 Birmingham, England Robert Darch is a photographer, educator & curator based in the South West of England. He holds an MFA with distinction in Photographic Arts and a MA with distinction in Photography & the Book from Plymouth University. He also has a BA with honours in Documentary Photography from Newport, Wales. His photographic practice is motivated by the experience of place, in which the physical geography and material cultures of places merge with impressions from contemporary culture that equally influence perception. From these varied sources, both real and imagined, he constructs narratives that help contextualise a personal response to place. Robert is the Associate Curator at Unveil'd and also created Macula a collective for young photographers based in Exeter, Devon. In 2018 Robert’s work was included in Distinctly, a major group exhibition of British Photography, that included work by Martin Parr, Chris Killip, Daniel Meadows, Tish Murtha, Ken Grant, Paul Seawright, Marketa Luscakova, John Myers, Niall McDiarmid & Kirsty Mackay. Robert was one of the winning exhibitors of the British Journal of Photography 2018 Portrait of Britain. He has recently published his first book, The Moor, with Another Place Press. His photography has been published in The Telegraph, The Guardian & The Financial Times. www.robertdarch.com

You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast

Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer in Professional Photography at the University of Gloucestershire, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His next book New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019. He is currently work on his next documentary film project. He is currently work on his next documentary film project Woke Up This Morning: The Rock n' Roll Thunder of Ray Lowry www.wokeupthismorningfilm.com.

His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay has been screened across the UK and the US in 2018 and will be screened in the US and Canada in 2019.

© Grant Scott 2019

In episode 37 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering the acceptance of photography as a part-time profession, and a new research report titled The State of News Photography 2018, published by the World Press Photo Foundation in Amsterdam.

Plus this week Grant re-visits a recorded conversation from 2011 with Magnum photographer Christopher Anderson in which Anderson speaks about discovering photography, the personal connection he has with his images and his intention when creating his iconic Haiti refugee body of work.

Christopher Anderson was born in Canada and first gained recognition for his pictures in 1999 when he boarded a small wooden boat with Haitian refugees trying to sail to the United States. The boat, named the Believe In God, sank in the Caribbean. In 2000 the images from that journey received the Robert Capa Gold Medal. Anderson's early work from conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel/ Palestine earned international acclaim and awards such as two World Press Photo Awards and Magazine Photographer of the Year. In 2004, he began traveling to Venezuela to document the country under the presidency of Hugo Chávez. The resulting book, Capitolio (RM 2009) was named one of the best photographic books of 2010 at the Kassels book Festival in Germany. In 2011, Anderson made Capitolio into an app for iPhone and iPad, the first photographic book to be made into an application for such devices. His current work crosses genres, from documentary to art to portraiture of celebrities such as Lady Gaga. Anderson was one of the early members of the VII Photo Agency but he resigned from the agency in 2004 and joined Magnum Photos in 2005. He has served as a contract photographer for Newsweek and National Geographic magazines and is currently the first 'Photographer in Residence' at New York Magazine. www.christopherandersonphoto.com

You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast

Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer in Professional Photography at the University of Gloucestershire, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His next book New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019. He is currently work on his next documentary film project. He is currently work on his next documentary film project Woke Up This Morning: The Rock n' Roll Thunder of Ray Lowry.

His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay has been screened across the UK and the US in 2018 and will be screened in the US and Canada in 2019.

© Grant Scott 2019

In episode 36 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed looking back on photography in 2018 and forward to what 2019 may or may not hold for the medium. Plus he names his favourite photo books published in 2018, and his favourite exhibition and photography initiative.

You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast

Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer in Professional Photography at the University of Gloucestershire, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His next book New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019. He is currently work on his next documentary film project. He is currently work on his next documentary film project Woke Up This Morning: The Rock n' Roll Thunder of Ray Lowry.

His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay has been screened across the UK and US in 2018 and will be screened in the US and Canada in 2019.

© Grant Scott 2019

In this Christmas Special UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his festive shed looking back on the past year and thinking about photography's relationship with Christmas.

To continue the Christmas message photographer Jim Mortram provides an alternative option to the Queen's speech by taking on the challenge of supplying Grant with an audio file in which he answer’s the question ‘What Does Photography Mean to You?’ Because Jim is definitely on Santa's 'good list' he has given him an extra 5 minutes to fulfil the task.

You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast

Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer in Professional Photography at the University of Gloucestershire, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His next book #New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in January 2019.

His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay will be screened across the UK and the US in 2018.

© Grant Scott 2018

In episode 34 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering photography judging panels, using Instagram as a professional tool and earning money from brand endorsement as a photographer.

Plus this week photographer Philip North Coombes 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?’

UK based photographer Philip North Coombes works globally on assignments for international fashion, lifestyle, sport and advertising brands such as Speedo, Berghaus, John Lewis, Selfridges, Eddie Bauer, LLBean, Sweaty Betty and Timberland amongst others. He has made two BBC documentaries, both at Everest base camp, capturing the life at an emergency hospital set up specifically for the climbing season. Inspired by the natural world and its preservation he is an ambassador for 4Ocean, The Ocean Foundation and Save Wild Tigers. North Coombes is also the founder of the Facebook  based Photographers United, a worldwide community of professional photographers and film makers, supporting, sharing and sustaining each other and the industry. www.philipnorthcoombes.com

You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at:

SoundCloud

https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto 

iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 

Player FM

https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life 

Podbean

www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast 

Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/show/4oOnPplYSeCKIYqopCK3ra?si=TQz8RdwDQ--ryx90jt6JEA

Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer in Professional Photography at the University of Gloucestershire, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His next book #New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019.

His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay will be screened across the UK and the US in 2018.

© Grant Scott 2018