A Photographic Life

In the third of three special episodes UNP founder and curator Grant Scott looks at where we have been over the past decades with photographic practice to help identify themes and recurring issues that have formed the foundation for where photography is today in the 21st Century. Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts. © Grant Scott 2023 Image: Charles C. Ebbets in 1932 Music: © Grant Campbell 2023 https://grantcampbell.bandcamp.com/music

In the second of three special episodes UNP founder and curator Grant Scott looks at where we have been over the past decades with photographic practice to help identify themes and recurring issues that have formed the foundation for where photography is today in the 21st Century. Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts. © Grant Scott 2023 Image: Charles C. Ebbets in 1932 Music: © Grant Campbell 2023 https://grantcampbell.bandcamp.com/music

In the first of three special episodes UNP founder and curator Grant Scott looks at where we have been over the past decades with photographic practice to help identify themes and recurring issues that have formed the foundation for where photography is today in the 21st Century. Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts. © Grant Scott 2023

In episode 273 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the death of editorial publishing, the rise of Threads by Meta and the natural process of ageing based on digital evolution. Plus this week, photographer Andrew Macpherson 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?’ Andrew Macpherson was born in London and currently resides in Los Angeles, California. He has worked as a photographer since he left school at 15, traveling the world to photograph musicians, actors and designers. By his mid-twenties he was a regular contributor to magazines such as Rolling Stone, The Face, Elle, Bazaar and Vogue. His passion for photography and the darkroom process led him to become a master printer, however as a life long environmentalist the carbon and chemical footprints of film created a great deal of inner conflict, and he became an enthusiastic early adopter of the digital revolution in the Nineties. Macpherson has created multiple bodies of personal work throughout his career, ranging from an exploration of the American landscape in his body of work Chasing Ansel Adams to studies of performance, flowers and spirit. Macpherson is currently collaborating on several personal projects including Immortality & Impermanence with artist Onik Agaronyan, Pagan Spirit, an exploration into romanticism and pictorialism with dancer Joanna Hadfield, and Trinity: The Crucible of Life a poem of creation told through discarded objects. www.andrewmacpherson.com Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts. Scott’s next book Condé Nast Have Left The Building: Six Decades of Vogue House will be published by Orphans Publishing in the Spring of 2024. © Grant Scott 2023

In this 'Photo Collecting' episode UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed connecting with Peter Fetterman in Santa Monica to discuss all aspects of photo collecting, including pricing, selling, archives, keeping true to your vision, the art market and the photography gallery. Born in London, Peter Fetterman has been deeply involved in the medium of photography for over thirty years. Initially a filmmaker, producer and collector, he set up his first gallery over twenty years ago. Fetterman was one of the pioneer tenants of Bergamot Station, the Santa Monica Center of the Arts when it first opened in 1994. Today, his gallery has one of the largest inventories of classic 20th Century photography in the United States particularly in humanist photography including work by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sebastião Salgado, Steve McCurry, Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, Willy Ronis, André Kertesz, Manuel Alvarez Bravo and Lillian Bassman. His book The Power of Photography was published in 2022. www.peterfetterman.com Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts. Scott's next book Condé Nast Have Left The Building: Six Decades of Vogue House will be published by Orphans Publishing in the Spring of 2024. © Grant Scott 2023

In this 'Photobook Special' episode UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his she connecting with Mary V Swanson in Arizona and Darius Himes in New York to discuss their book Publish Your Photography Book and all things 'photobook' related. You can find out more about the book mentioned in this episode here www.publishyourphotographybook.com and here on Instagram @publishyourphotographybook Mary V Swanson is an educator, author, entrepreneur and a respected advisor to artists and arts organisations. She received her MFA in Photography from Arizona State University in 1979 and throughout graduate school she served as a research assistant for the Curator of Photography at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. She began her career at The Friends of Photography in Carmel, California, managing the education offerings including the Ansel Adams Workshop and then moved to New York to head Special Projects at Magnum Photos, before relocating to Tucson, Arizona in 1990 to launch Swanstock, an agency managing licensing rights for fine art photographers. She currently works independently, offering consulting services to artists and arts organisations, and offering her own classes and educational seminars, serving as an advisor for multiple not-for-profit industry organisations, and other community-minded activities. Swanson coauthored with Darius Himes Publish Your Photography Book: Revised & Updated in 2014. Among the recent awards she has received are the 2015 Honoured Educator from the Society for Photographic Education, the 2014 Susan Carr Award for Education from the American Society for Media Photographers (ASMP) and the FOCUS Award for Lifetime Achievement in Photography from the Griffin Museum. She frequently serves as a judge on contemporary photography and photobook competitions, as a portfolio reviewer for industry events, and she presents group learning through interactive lectures, workshops and Master Class Retreats. Swanson is based in Tucson, Arizona. @maryvirginiaswanson. Darius Himes completed his Master of Arts in Liberal Arts at St. John's College in 2000, and received a BFA in Photography from Arizona State University, having studied under William Jenkins and Bill Jay. Based in New York City, Himes has overseen a global team producing auctions and exhibition as the International Head of Photographs for the auction house Christie’s since 2014. Prior to joining Christie’s, Himes was the director of the Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco from 2011–2014. In 2007 he co-founded Radius Books, a non-profit publisher of books on photography and the visual arts, where he continues to serve on the Board. While working with artists such as John McCracken and Lee Friedlander, he has published first monographs for over a dozen emerging artists, including Renate Aller, Colleen Plumb, Aaron Huey, Janelle Lynch, Michael Lundgren, Alison Rossiter, and Meghan Riepenhoff. Himes was also the founding editor of the photo-eye Booklist, a quarterly journal devoted to photography books, which was published from 2002–2007. A lecturer and writer, he has contributed to Aperture, The Photobook Review, Blind Spot, Bookforum, FOAM and BOMB. @dariushimes Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts. © Grant Scott 2023

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 photography and artificial intelligence in a rigorous discussion dealing with the impact AI is and will have on the future of photography. 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. © Grant Scott 2023

In episode 269 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the slow death of the 'old school' photo festival, publishing archives, feedback that is too nice and his inability to use AI. Plus this week, photographer Julio Mitchel 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?’ Julio Mitchel was born and raised in Cuba and has worked in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru and Brazil. A few months after the Cuban revolution, Mitchel, then 17, went to New York City. Though he had intended to be a lawyer, he didn’t enjoy school and took a series of jobs as a photographic assistant, mostly to fashion photographers. While he was picking up technical skills, he developed the habit of regularly expressing his contempt for the fashion world. His life changed when he took a photography class with Lisette Model at the New School. In the first class, the students showed their work and Model’s critique reduced Mitchel to tears. But he returned to class and she later became a friend. He went on to photograph in the Middle East and Northern Ireland but found himself somewhat lost — too art based for newspapers and magazines; too journalistic for art galleries. He received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and published two books that have long been out of print, Tu Me Amas? in 1991 and Triptych” in 1990. Mitchel taught at the School of Visual Arts, Cooper Union and the New School and continued to pursue his personal work. He is now retired from teaching and is trying to organise his unseen photographs of the last 20 years. www.juliomitchel.com Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts. © Grant Scott 2023

In episode 268 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on snake-oil salesmen, the importance of an attention to detail over concept and the issue of quantity over quality. Plus this week, photographer Edward Thompson 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?’ Edward Thompson is a British documentary photographer whose photographic work focuses on various subjects over the years covering environmental issues, socio-political movements, subcultures, everyday life and the consequences of war. Thompson had a life changing experience with an early apprenticeship with the Russian photographer Sergey Chilikov, whom he met at the Arles Photography Festival in 2001. That summer Ed stayed with Sergey in Paris and learnt the value of shooting everyday life, eating fried fat and drinking red wine. Since then, his documentary photo-essays have been published in international magazines including National Geographic Magazine, Newsweek Japan, Greenpeace Magazine, The Guardian Weekend Magazine, BBC, CNN and The Sunday Times Magazine. Thompson's work has been exhibited at Christies, Somerset House and Four Corners Gallery (London) and shown as part of photography festivals in Arles (France), Tampere (Finland), Zingst (Germany) & London (U.K). Thompson has lectured on photography and spoken regularly about photography on television, radio and online, including on Al Jazeera News and the BBC World Service. In2012 he self-published a book of his work titled Occupy London. In 2016 he published The Unseen: An Atlas of Infrared Plates and in 2022 he self-published his book In-A-Gadda-Da-England. https://edwardthompson.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). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts. © Grant Scott 2023

In episode 267 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the importance of editorial photography and its demise, fashion photography in the Metaverse and how established lens brands are viewing the future of the smartphone. Plus this week, photographer David Baker 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?’ David Baker is a photographer based in Norfolk, United Kingdom whose work has featured in numerous books, commissioned artworks and art institutions. His work over the past ten years evidences a documentation of abandoned and historical places, buildings and spaces across Europe as he searches for the unknown, hidden and historically significant. www.davidbakerphotography.com Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts. Scott's new book Conde Nast Have Left the Building: Six Decades of Vogue House will be published in the Spring of 2024 by Orphans Publishing. © Grant Scott 2023