A Photographic Life

In the fifth episode of 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. In this episode they reflect on what makes a successful website for a photographer and a client. 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. Mentioned in this episode: Saul Leiter: was an American photographer and painter whose early work in the 1940s and 1950s was an important contribution to what came to be recognised as the New York school of photography.  www.saulleiterfoundation.org Amy Lombard: Her bold and colorful work has landed her editorial clients from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post to companies like Puma, Google, HBO and more. www.amylombard.com Jesse Adler http://jessieadler.squarespace.com © Grant Scott 2023

In episode 247 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed picking up some odds and ends concerning social media, engagement, truth versus fiction and hanging photographs. Plus this week, photographer Deborah Parkin takes 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?’ Deborah Parkin lives with her family and animals in the wild North Pennines, Northumberand. Her work is rooted in family life and her environment utilising a variety of mediums, from large format to digital and traditional alternative processes such as Wet Plate Collodion, Bromoil, Albumen, Cyantotype and Silver Gelatin. Before becoming a photographer and mother Parkin spent many years in academia researching for a Ph.d in Women’s War Writing and teaching as well as gaining an MA in Holocaust Studies. Her passion for photography started in earnest with the birth of her son as his arrival prompted a need to record the life of her new family. Parkin's photographic work has been exhibited and published worldwide including Japan, U.S. U.K, Bulgaria, Iran and China. It is also held in private collections, museums and galleries including the Fox Talbot Museum (UK), the Centre for Fine Art Photography (U.S) and the Charlet Gallery (Paris). www.deborahparkin.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 246 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the issues facing photographers in 2023, the fragile nature of social media and the return of classic American documentary photography. Plus this week, photographer Richard Sharum 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?’ Richard Sharum is a documentary and project-centred photographer who grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas. Mainly focusing on socio-economic or social justice dilemmas concerning the human condition, his work has been regarded as in-depth, up-close and personal. In 1996 he moved to Dallas where he still lives and started experimenting with photography. In 2005 he enrolled at Northlake College and took one introductory class in black and white film photography, and I was set on being a documentary photojournalist. In 2015 he initiated the Observe Dallas project where he hung eight photographs on five different buildings in downtown Dallas for two months to highlight the lack of public art in one of the biggest cities in America and In 2019 he became an Eddie Adams Alumnus. Sharum's book Campesino Cuba published in 2021 resulted from a period of four years spent travelling across rural Cuba, exploring the lives of isolated farmers and documenting their relationship with the land. His images have been added to private and public collections across the world, with exhibitions in Kyoto, Japan, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Reggio Emilia, Italy, New York, and Dallasand he has been commissioned by The Meadows Foundation, Centers for Community Cooperation, Harvard Law School, Student Conservation Association and the Children’s Cancer Fund amongst others. His work has been published by The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, Huck Magazine, El Pais (Spain), The New York Times Lens Blog, and the International Business Times Weekly. https://richardsharum.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 245 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the centenarian photographer, when the sitter takes control and learning photography not facts. Plus this week, photographer John R.J.Taylor 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?’ John R. J. Taylor was born in Scotland in 1958 and studied art and photography at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Scotland and photography at the Royal College of Art in London. His book Ideal Home was first published over thirty years ago in 1989 and quickly began to influence photographers and students as to what was a suitable subject for an image, opening up the possibilities of exploring the ordinary, everyday objects of life in a new way. Once a cult book, it is now considered a ‘modern classic’. Ideal Home is an almost forensic photographic record of his sister’s north London suburban house. Working his way methodically around the house, Taylor documented the rooms, table tops, ornaments, interiors of fridges, cupboards, garden – as many aspects of the domestic interior of the home as possible. Taylor has continued to work on numerous projects ever since and his images have been collected by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of London and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Texas, USA, exhibited throughout Europe and once in the USA. www.johnrjtaylorphotography.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 this extended episode, editor, writer and curator of photography Bill Shapiro and UNP founder and curator Grant Scott suggest some photographic wishes for 2023 reflecting on mentorship, open access photography, Instagram, archives, and young and not-so- young photographers. Grant also marks the passing of the photographers we have lost in 2022. 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 243 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed looking to the future whilst reflecting on the evolution of cameras, AI portraits and listening to photo talk. Plus this week, photographer Gautier Deblonde 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?’ Gautier Deblonde is a French photographer, renowned for his portraits of key international artists and a practice that is situated between reportage and documentary. Born and raised in France, he moved to London in 1991 to work as a photographer. He works closely with his artist subjects, photographing their working spaces and in doing so their contributions to the art world. Deblonde's subjects include Damien Hirst, Gilbert & George, Jeff Koons, Antony Gormley and Ron Mueck. His book Atelier, published by Steidl, captured sixty-nine artist studios in panorama, providing a glimpse behind the scenes to the source of artistic creation, and his book Artists, published by Tate Gallery in 1999, brought together a number of his artist portraits. Projects have included True North (2009), a series about Svalbard in the High Arctic exhibited at Galerie du Jour Agnès B in Paris, and Still Life: Ron Mueck at Work (2013), a documentary film commissioned by the Fondation Cartier. Deblonde's photographs of the creation and installation into the Millennium Dome of Ron Mueck’s sculpture Boy won a World Press Award and were published in 2001. His works have been exhibited in a number of museums and galleries including Le Petit Palais in Paris, Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery in London. www.gautierdeblonde.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 2022

In this special extended episode UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed talking with photographer Jonas Bendiksen about the future for photography, synthetic images, beginning projects, how to stay relevant, generic images, photographic confidence and the pressures of success. Born in 1977 in Tønsberg, southern Norway at aged 19, Jonas Bendiksen started a one-year internship at the Magnum Photos' London office. He made coffee and tea, ran to the post office, answered the phones and returned prints and slides to their correct places in the archive. He left Magnum and headed to for Russia to try to become a photographer and fell madly in love with the former USSR, spending several years there resulting in his first book, Satellites - Photographs from the Fringes of the former Soviet Union, which came out in 2006. He joined Magnum Photos in 2004. Fascinated by enclaves and people living in isolated communities Bendikson started another project in 2005 focused on the urban slum. His The Places We Live body of work became a three-year journey through four slum communities around the world, and in 2008 it became a book and exhibition featuring projections and voice recordings in a three-dimensional installation. In 2017 his book, The Last Testament, about people who claim to be the Second Coming of Christ was published. In 2021, his book The Book of Veles, departed from traditional photojournalism practice by creating a conceptual work about "fake news" which consisted of images that were "faked" using CGI to place humans and bears in scenes that Bendiksen had photographed devoid of life, mixed with excerpts from The Book of Veles (a forged ancient text), and AI-generated texts. The deception, initially not disclosed, escaped detection from his colleagues at Magnum and then curators and audiences at the Visa Pour l'Image festival, until Bendiksen revealed it on the Magnum Photos website. The work questioned the ability of the most visually literate people in the photography industry to tell real photos from faked ones. Some of Bendiksen's clients include GEO magazine, Newsweek, the Sunday Times Magazine, The Rockefeller Foundation, Goldman Sachs, and many others. Since 2004 he has worked with the National Geographic Magazine.Bendiksen has received awards from World Press Photo, International Center of Photography, National Magazine Awards and Pictures of the Year International.  Bendiksen lives near Oslo, Norway with his wife and three children. www.jonasbendiksen.com *You can read more about Jonas's process of creating The Book of Veles here: www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/society-arts-culture/book-veles-jonas-bendiksen-hoodwinked-photography-industry/ 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 2022

In episode 241 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on photography now and how we got here, whilst suggesting advice on photographic practice from Jack Kerouac and Tony Ray-Jones. Plus this week, photographer Mitra Tabrizian takes 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?’ Mitra Tabrizian is an Iranian‐British artist and filmmaker whose photographic work has been exhibited and published widely and represented in major international museums and public collections. Solo museum shows include at Tate Britain in 2008 and the Venice Biennale, Iranian Pavilion in 2015. She was awarded the Royal Academyʼs Rose Award for Photography in 2013 and selected as one of Hundred Heroines: Celebrating Women in Photography Today, by the Royal Photographic Society in 2018. Her short film The Insider was made in collaboration with the Booker Prize Winner, Ben Okri and commissioned to accompany Albert Camus’ The Outsider, adapted for the stage by Okri. Screenings of her film-work include at the British Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. Tabrizian's latest photographic book Off Screen was published in 2019. Her critically acclaimed debut feature Gholam had a theatrical release in 2017 and is now available on BFI player, Amazon Prime and Itunes worldwide. Mitra is currently developing her second feature The Far Mountains with the British Film Institute. www.mitratabrizian.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 2022

In episode 239 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on respecting copyright, those that support you, the passing of George Lois and Allan Porter and photography baseball cards. Plus this week, photographer Kieran Dodds 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?’ Kieran Dodds was born in 1980 and describes himself as a non-fiction photographer. After studying Zoology at university he trained at the Herald newspaper group in Glasgow, picking up national and international awards. His first self-assigned story The Bats of Kasanka received 1st prize in the World Press Photo awards and a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship then allowed him to document Tibetan culture in flux, as pastoral nomads were resettled in highland China, resulting in the body of work titled The Third Pole. On his return home Dodds focused on political upheaval using the landscape to consider depictions and realities of Scottish identity through the centuries to create Land of Scots. Most recently he has been exploring the major role of spiritual beliefs in the global conservation movement, funded by the Royal Photographic Society Environmental bursary. His first book Gingers was published in 2020 and his work has featured in the New York Times, GEO, Financial Times, La Repubblica, Die Zeit, Wall Street Journal, New Scientist, Sunday Times Magazine and National Geographic. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife Caz and twin daughters Ada and Isobel. He is represented by Panos Pictures, London. www.kierandodds.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 2022

In the fourth episode of 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 the design, the pagination, size, format and the use of text. 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 2022