A Photographic Life

In episode 6 of this new podcast series Grant Scott continues his search for Bill Jay and documents the end of Album magazine and Bill's move to the ICA with support from the founder of The Photographer's Gallery, London, Sue Davies and Bill Jay himself! William ‘Bill’ Jay (12 August 1940 – 10 May 2009) was a photographer, a writer on and advocate of photography, a curator,  a magazine and picture editor, lecturer, public speaker and mentor. He was the first editor of Creative Camera Owner magazine, which became Creative Camera magazine (1967–1969) and founder and editor of Albummagazine (1970–1971). Jay established the first gallery dedicated to photography in the UK with the Do Not Bend Gallery, London and the first Director of Photography at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. Whilst there he founded and directed the first photo-study centre. He studied at the University of New Mexico under Beaumont Newhall and Van Deren Coke and then founded the Photographic Studies programme at Arizona State University, where he taught photography history and criticism for 25 years. Jay is the author of more than twenty books on the history and criticism of photography, four books of his own photography, and roughly 400 essays, lectures and articles. His regular column titled Endnotes was published within Lenswork magazine for a number of years and his own photographs have been widely published, including a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  www.donotbendfilm.com © Grant Scott 2022

In episode 219 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on embracing experiences and life, empathy and context in photographic documentation, and protecting your legacy through your own actions. Plus this week, photographer Arne Svenson 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?’ Arne Svenson is a self-taught photographer with an educational and vocational background in special education, whose photographic practice aims to seek out the inner life, the essence, of his subjects, whether they be human, inanimate, or something in between. He says that he uses his camera as a reporter uses text, to create a narrative that facilitates the understanding of that which may lie hidden or obscured. In the years 2012-1016, Svenson was artist-in-residence at Wesley Spectrum High School, a program in Pittsburgh for children on the autism spectrum. In partnership with The Andy Warhol Museum and the Cognitive Psychology Department at the University of Victoria, BC, he was involved in a long-term project exploring the science of facial recognition skills with subjects on the spectrum. The resultant work was shown in its entirety at The Andy Warhol Museum. He is the author/photographer of numerous books, including Unspeaking Likeness, The Neighbors, Prisoners and Sock Monkeys and in 2016 he received the Nannen Prize in photojournalism for his project The Neighbors. Svenson's photographs have been shown extensively in the United States, Europe and Asia and are included in numerous public and private collections, including SFMOMA, Carnegie Museum of Art, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Norton Museum of Art. His work has been profiled in the New York Times, Artforum, Art in America and The New Yorker, among other publications. Recent solo exhibitions of his images have been held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Western Washington University, and as a two-person show with the work of Andre Kertesz at Galerie Miranda, Paris. Over the past few years Svenson has given numerous lectures in universities and museums, mostly on the issue of free speech in the arts and how this topic relates to his series The Neighbors, the subject of a protracted legal battle. He was the defendant in a lawsuit involving privacy issues and therefore uniquely qualified to speak about the ramifications of censorship and the protections guaranteed by the First Amendment. https://arnesvenson.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 5 of this new podcast series Grant Scott continues his search for Bill Jay and reflects on the birth of Album magazine in 1970 with support from its publisher Tristram Powell and Bill Jay himself! William ‘Bill’ Jay (12 August 1940 – 10 May 2009) was a photographer, a writer on and advocate of photography, a curator,  a magazine and picture editor, lecturer, public speaker and mentor. He was the first editor of Creative Camera Owner magazine, which became Creative Camera magazine (1967–1969) and founder and editor of Album magazine (1970–1971). Jay established the first gallery dedicated to photography in the UK with the Do Not Bend Gallery, London and the first Director of Photography at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. Whilst there he founded and directed the first photo-study centre. He studied at the University of New Mexico under Beaumont Newhall and Van Deren Coke and then founded the Photographic Studies programme at Arizona State University, where he taught photography history and criticism for 25 years. Jay is the author of more than twenty books on the history and criticism of photography, four books of his own photography, and roughly 400 essays, lectures and articles. His regular column titled Endnotes was published within Lenswork magazine for a number of years and his own photographs have been widely published, including a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  www.donotbendfilm.com © Grant Scott 2022

In episode 218 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the word photograph, music and creativity, poetry and photography and positive news for some commissioned photographers. Plus this week, photographer Andrew Moore 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?’ American photographer Andrew Moore is widely acclaimed for his photographic series, usually taken over many years, which record the effect of time on the natural and built landscape. These series include work made in Cuba, Russia, Bosnia, Times Square, Detroit, The Great Plains, and most recently, the American South. Moore’s photographs are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Library of Congress amongst many other institutions. He received a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 2014, and has been award grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the J M Kaplan Fund. His most recent book, Blue Alabama, was released in 2019. His previous work on the lands and people along the 100th Meridian in the US, called Dirt Meridian, was exhibited at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha. An earlier book, Detroit Disassembled, included an essay by the late Poet Laureate Philip Levine, and an exhibition of the same title opened at the Akron Museum of Art before also traveling to the Queens Museum of Art, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, and the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. Moore’s other books include: Inside Havana (2002), Governors Island (2004) and Russia, Beyond Utopia (2005) and Cuba (2012). Additionally, his photographs have appeared in Art in America, Artnews, The Bitter Southerner, Harpers, National Geographic, New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, TIME, Vogue and Wired. Moore produced and photographed How to Draw a Bunny, a pop art mystery feature film on the artist Ray Johnson. The movie premiered at the 2002 Sundance Festival, where it won a Special Jury prize. www.andrewlmoore.com Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). © Grant Scott 2022

In episode 217 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the definition of contemporary photography, avoiding labels and he announces a new addition to the A Photographic Life broadcasts. Plus this week photographer Jillian Edelstein 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?’ London based Jillian Edelstein began working as a press photographer in Johannesburg, South Africa. and studied photojournalism at London College of Communications after graduating from The University of Cape Town, B.Soc.Sc in Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology Social Work. Between 1996 and 2002 she returned to South Africa frequently to document the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Her award winning book of the work Truth and Lies was published in 2002. Edelstein's portraits have appeared internationally in publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The FT Weekend Magazine, Vanity Fair, Interview, Vogue, The Guardian Weekend, The Sunday Times Magazine, Time, Fortune, Forbes, GQ and Esquire. Her work has also been exhibited internationally including at the National Portrait Gallery, The Photographers' Gallery, The Royal Academy, Sothebys, Les Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in France, Bensusan Museum, Robben Island Museum in South Africa and Dali International Photography Festival, Yunnan Province, China. She has received several awards including the Kodak UK Young Photographer of the Year, Photographers' Gallery Portrait Photographer of the Year Award, the Visa d’Or at the International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan in 1997, the European Final Art Polaroid Award in 1999, the John Kobal Book Award 2003 and included in The Taylor Wessing Portrait Award on two occasions and the AI-AP Archive in 2008 and 2015. Edelstein was the winner in Latin American Fotografia 4 2015, has been included in World Press Awards on two occasions. Jillian was voted on the ‘Hundred Heroines’ list of women from across the world who are transforming photography today in 2018. She lives in London and is currently working on several photographic projects including a film documentary about the screenwriter Norman Wexler. www.jillianedelstein.com Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). ©Grant Scott 2022

In episode 4 of this new podcast series Grant Scott continues his search for Bill Jay and reflects on the importance of Creative Camera magazine and the impact Bill had on photography in the UK as its editor before leaving in December 1969. Bill Jay was a photographer, writer on and advocate of photography, curator, magazine and picture editor, lecturer, public speaker and mentor. He was the first editor of “the immensely influential magazine Creative Camera and founder and editor of Album magazine. He is the author of more than 20 books on the history and criticism of photography, and roughly 400 essays, lectures and articles. His own photographs have been widely published, including a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He is also known for his portrait photographs of photographers. www.donotbendfilm.com Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). © Grant Scott 2022

In episode 216 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on photographs as memories of lives lived and lost, and reducing the pressure on making work. Plus this week photographer Mickey Smith 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?’ Mickey Smith is an American conceptual artist who now lives in New Zealand who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Photography from Minnesota State University Moorhead and a Diploma in Jewellery Design from Hungry Creek Art & Craft School in New Zealand. As a photographer, her practice over the last twenty years has been engaged with a longstanding inquiry into libraries, books and archives — in particular the social significance of their physical existence or disappearance. Smith has exhibited throughout the United States, in China, Russia and New Zealand and her works are held in numerous public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art Library, Sheldon Museum of Art and Weisman Art Museum. She has also received awards from the McKnight Foundation, CEC ArtsLink, Americans for the Arts and Creative New Zealand. Her first artist’s book, Denudation, was included in the photo book installation, A Different Kind of Order: The ICP Triennial in 2012. In 2018, her second book was published titled As You Will... Carnegie Libraries of the South Pacific, a book focused on the 25 Carnegie libraries erected in New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji. Two bodies of her work Matters of Time and New Outlook, have been exhibited at the Sanderson Contemporary, New Zealand. www.mickeysmith.com Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). © Grant Scott 2022

In episode 215 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on photography in your fifties, the importance of integrity in documentation, and learning from the past, whilst listening to the present. Plus this week photographer Shane Rocheleau 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?’ Shane Rocheleau received an MFA from the Virginia Commonwealth University and is an American photographer whose work confronts the endemic position of toxic masculinity and white supremacy within the American experience. His work has been exhibited in the United States, Spain, Russia, Brazil, Australia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, India, and Germany, and his photographs have been featured in a wide variety of online and print publications, including Aperture’s The PhotoBook Review, Dear Dave magazine, The Heavy Collective, Paper Journal, and The Washington Post. Three monographs of Rocheleau’s images have been published, You Are Masters Of The Fish And Birds And All The Animals (2018), The Reflection In The Pool (2019), and Lakeside (2022) and his work is held in collections within the Museum of Modern Art, the Vogue Italia Collection, Fondazione Teatro Regio di Parma, and Tate Britain, amongst others. Rocheleau currently lives and works in Richmond, Virginia. www.shanerocheleau.com Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). © Grant Scott 2022

In episode 213 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on writing your own biography, post-graduate education for photographers and travel photography without travelling. Plus this week photographer Dominic Davies 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?’ Dominic Davies is a photographer who works primarily, but not exclusively in the controlled environment of the studio. Experimental and collaborative in approach he brings a precise and crafted vision to all his projects, driven by the fascination with exploring and realizing ideas photographically. His work has been commissioned by clients across the fields of design, music, publishing, museums and advertising include Absolut, 4AD, Grey Goose, Haagen Dazs, Guinness, Nike, Lee Cooper, Smirnoff, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The Fat Duck, and The Gourmand. Davies's images have been exhibited in Europe, USA and Japan and his book To Cage a study of the European zoo environments was published in 2001. https://dominicdavies.com Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). © Grant Scott 2022

In this extended episode Grant Scott speaks with editor, writer and curator of photography Bill Shapiro. In an informal conversation they discuss NFTs, photography in the Metaverse, photo books and photo book clubs, photographic curation speak and digital conflict imagery. 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. Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). © Grant Scott 2022