The United Nations of Photography

In episode 388 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the big and small things that impact on the everyday engagement we all have with photography.

https://www.artsy.net/article/addicted-art-gallery-markus-klinko-lady-gaga-hello-kitty

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.

Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is now on sale.

© Grant Scott 2025

Image: Markus Klink 2009

In episode 387 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his garage reflecting on the small and big things that impact on the everyday engagement we all have with photography.

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 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.

Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is now on sale.

© Grant Scott 2025

Image: Martin Parr, Cannes, France, 2018. Commissioned by Gucci

In this monthly conversation series Grant Scott speaks with editor, writer and curator of photography Bill Shapiro. In an informal conversation each month Grant and Bill comment on the photographic environment as they see it. This month they reflect on teaching photography and the role of the teacher.

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.

Scott’s next book is Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is on sale now wherever you buy your books.

Mentioned in this episode:
Ami Vitale www.amivitale.com
www.instagram.com/amivitale
https://vitalimpacts.org
Stephen Vanasco
www.stephenvanasco.com
Anne Rearick
www.annerearick.com
www.bluephoto.co/category/anne-rearick
Gure Bzterrak
Alex Harris
https://alex-harris.com
www.bluephoto.co/category/art-prints-by-alex-harris

© Grant Scott 2025

In episode 385 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the big and small things that impact on the everyday engagement we all have with photography.

Mentioned in this episode:
www.motherverafilm.co.uk
https://releasing.dogwoof.com/i-am-martin-parr

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.

Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is now on sale.

© Grant Scott 2025

Image: Man Ray

In this special episode UNP Founder and Curator Grant Scott speaks with documentary photographer Jim Mortram about long form projects, empathy, collaboration, community and social media.

Jim Mortram
Jim Mortram is a British social documentary photographer and writer, based in Dereham, Norfolk in the East of England. His ongoing project, Small Town Inertia, records the lives of a number of disadvantaged and marginalised people living near to his home, in order to tell stories he believes are under-reported. His photographs and writing are published on his website, and have been published by Café Royal Books in 2013, and in the book Small Town Inertia published by Bluecoat Press in 2017. Small Town Inertia Two will be publisshed in 2025. Mortram began the Small Town Inertia website in 2006 with the “Market Town” stories. Its name is a reference to the market town of Dereham, where he lives, fifteen miles west of the city of Norwich in Norfolk. Through photography, his writing and the subject’s own words, Mortram records the lives of the disadvantaged and marginalised, making repeated visits with a number of people living within three miles of his home. Small Town Inertia tells stories of “isolation, poverty, drug abuse, homelessness, self-harm, mental illness, juvenile crime, and epilepsy”, that Mortram believes are otherwise under-reported. Dave Stelfox wrote in The Guardian that “Mortram’s rich, black-and-white images possess a timeless quality that invites easy comparison with the classic documentary work of such British photographers as Chris Steele Perkins, Paul Trevor and Chris Killip.” An exhibition of the work titled Small Town Inertia will be shown at the Side Gallery, Newcastle, England, Saturday 12 January 2019 – Sunday 24 March 2019. https://smalltowninertia.co.uk

Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work zas 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.
Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is on sale now.

Mentioned in this episode:
https://gilesduley.com
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2024/02/23/stuart-pilkington-a-friend-of-photography-has-died-but/https://www.imageandreality.co.uk


© Grant Scott 2025

We do not feature daily news stories here or accept advertising, but this post is neither of these. See it more as a public interest announcement. Regular A Photographic Life podcast contributor Bill Shapiro has got together with friend and colleague Andy Blau to establish a new platform from which to sell photographic prints and so we thought we would tell you about it. Over to you Bill…

“As longtime lovers of great photography — some years ago, we relaunched LIFE magazine and then created LIFE.com — we’ve always understood how hard it is for photographers to get people to see their work. Of course, in the last few years, that’s only become more challenging as photo galleries have closed, Instagram has gone messy, and A.I. imagery has muddied the waters. So we decided to create an easy-to-use, highly curated, beautiful way to connect photographers with people who love pictures. And with BluePhoto Collective taking only 15 percent commission on sales, we’ve done it in a way that allows the photographer to keep the lion’s share of the purchase price. At BluePhoto, you’ll find high-quality, limited-edition prints and collectible photo books (as well as a few surprises) from both big-name photographers and those flying under the radar. Every photographer you see on the site has been invited and vetted by our editors; every picture you see has been curated.”

Bill Shapiro
Co-Founder & Editor in Chief
Bill Shapiro is the former Editor-in-Chief of LIFE magazine; LIFE’s relaunch in 2004 was the largest in Time Inc. history. Later, he served as the founding Editor-in-Chief of LIFE.com, which won the 2011 National Magazine Award for digital photography. A fine-art photography curator for galleries and a consultant to photographers, Bill is also a Contributing Editor to the Leica Conversations series and a monthly guest of the UN of Photography podcast. He has written about photography for the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Vogue, the Atlantic, Oprah, the Los Angeles Times, Texas Monthly, and Blind Magazine, among others. Say Less, a photography book he edited and for which he wrote the text, won the 2024 Lucie Award for Best Traditional Photo Book. He was recently named by Blind Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the Photography Industry. Bill is the author of several books, among them Gus & Me, the best-selling children’s book he co-wrote with legendary Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. On Instagram, he’s @billshapiro.

Andy Blau
Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer
Andy Blau served as the president of LIFE and, later, of LIFE.com, and spearheaded the effort to digitize the entire LIFE magazine archives and its 12 million photographs. In the elevators at Time Inc., he routinely chatted with many of the world’s legendary photographers, including Alfred Eisenstaedt, Leica hanging around his neck, who came to work well into his 90’s. A finance and operations executive with deep experience creating and executing revenue and cost management strategies, he has built, grown, and transformed legacy and digital media companies. He spent a majority of his career working for Time Inc. leading large-scale businesses including at TIME, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Money, and LIFE, and their multi-platform businesses. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Andy worked closely with the great photographer Joe McNally to produce the award-winning Faces of Ground Zero exhibit of McNally’s life-size Polaroids documenting survivors and rescue workers.

You can find out more here https://www.bluephoto.co

In episode 383 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his garage reflecting on the small and big things that impact on the everyday engagement we all have with photography.

Mentioned in this episode:
https://www.youtube.com/@Fashion_Neurosis/videos
https://archive.org/details/american.masters.s33e06.garry.winogrand.all.things.are.photographable.web.h264-underbellyeztv

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 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.

Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is now on sale.

© Grant Scott 2025

In this special episode UNP Founder and Curator Grant Scott speaks with photographers Simon Roberts and Nina Emett about their project to establish an artist led collaborative space for photography on the South coast of England.

Mentioned in this episode: 
POST is a new artist-led cultural space in Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, UK. It will include affordable artist studios and co-working spaces for lens-based artists, a community darkroom in collaboration, a daylight film & photography studio, a flexible exhibition and event space, workshop and masterclass programmes, residencies for lens-based artists, and a shared kitchen, collaboration hub and reference library. It aims to bring together artists, local residents, community groups, and public sector partners in ‘creative solutions labs’ to collectively explore addressing challenges like inequality, homelessness, the climate crisis and biodiversity loss in the city and beyond.

Simon Roberts
Robert’s was born in 1974 and is a visual artist based in Brighton, UK, recognised for his large-format, tableaux photographs exploring the socio-political fabric of Britain. His practice also encompasses video, text and installation, which together, interrogate notions of identity, belonging, and the complex relationship between history, place and culture. He has exhibited widely, and his photographs reside in major public and private collections, including the George Eastman House, Deutsche Börse Art Collection and Victoria & Albert Museum. In 2010 he was appointed the official British Election Artist by the House of Commons Works of Art Committee and in 2014 he represented Britain during the UK-Russia Year of Culture. Roberts has been commissioned to make several large-scale public artworks and recognised with numerous awards including an Honorary Fellowship to the Royal Photographic Society, the Vic Odden Award and grants from Arts Council England and the John Kobal Foundation. He is the author of several critically acclaimed monographs including Motherland (2007), We English (2009), Pierdom (2013) and Merrie Albion – Landscape Studies of a Small Island (2017), his work has also been profiled and published widely including in the New Yorker, Granta, National Geographic, ArtForum, Wallpaper, amongst others. Roberts holds a First Class BA Hons in Cultural Geography from The University of Sheffield and is a regular public speaker and visiting lecturer. Outside of his own professional practice he is involved with several not-for-profit organisations having formerly served as a trustee of Photoworks, an ambassador to FotoDocument and the head of the advisory board for the Ian Parry Photojournalism Award. He is also a co-founder of POST a new artist-led studio complex in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. www.simoncroberts.com

Nina Emett
Emett is founding Director of FotoDocument and a passionate believer in visual story-telling to engage people in powerful narratives, creating active global citizenship to effect positive change. She has commissioned and curated over 30 multi-media arts projects and exhibitions since 2012. She won a PEA (People Environment Achievement) Award for FotoDocument’s acclaimed One Planet City environmental project with Bioregional in 2015. Emett has worked as a photographer including for The Independent, Amnesty International, PwC, Brighton & Hove City Council and works on her own long-form documentary photo essays. She was Strategic Lead for Brighton & Hove City Council’s anti-racism strategy (2005-09) and Director of the Salusbury World Refugee Centre (1999–03). She holds an MSC in International Development, a Postgraduate Diploma in Photojournalism and a BA Hons in French. She is also a co-founder of POST a new artist-led studio complex in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. https://www.instagram.com/nina_emett/

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.

Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is now on sale.

© Grant Scott 2025

In this fourth and final episode of a special four part Summer series Grant Scott reads extracts from his book Inside Vogue House: One Building. Seven Magazines. Sixty Years of Stories.

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 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.

Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building. Seven magazines. Sixty Years of Stories is on sale now.

© Grant Scott 2025

In this third episode of a special four part Summer series Grant Scott reads extracts from his book Inside Vogue House: One Building. Seven Magazines. Sixty Years of Stories.

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 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.

Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building. Seven magazines. Sixty Years of Stories is on sale now.

© Grant Scott 2025