A Photographic Life

In episode 196 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on whether or not you need to read Susan Sontag, people trying to get photography on the cheap and he suggests some health considerations for photographers based on his own experience. Plus this week photographer Andreas Weinand 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?’ Andreas Weinand was born in 1958 in the Rheine region of Germany, and is now based in Berlin.  He studied photography at the University GHS Essen (Folkwang), graduating in 1990 and his photography is primarily engaged with research concerning personal identities and the exploration of relationships between the individual presenting his/her personality and the society to which he/she engages with. Between 1985 to 1995 he concentrated on three projects: Deutsche Volksfeste, Colossal Youth and Reflecting Oneself. Weinand's work has been exhibited extensively including exhibitions in Denmark, Belgium, Canada, Russia, Italy and Germany and represented in numerous public collections. Three book of his images have been published The Good Earth, Colossal Youth and Stadt Land Mensch. www.andreasweinand.de 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’s book What Does Photography Mean to You? including 89 photographers who have contributed to the A Photographic Life podcast is on sale now £9.99 https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/ Podcast music: Written and performed by Dr. Laura Ritchie www.lauraritchie.com © Grant Scott 2022

In episode 195 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the use of the word photography, the role of photojournalism and the evolution of the photographic agent. Plus this week photographer Ruth Lauer Manenti take's 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?’ Ruth Lauer Manenti received an MFA from The Yale School of Art in painting and drawing in 1994 and in 2012, she was given a large format camera and taught herself how to use it. Since breaking her neck in a car crash at the age of twenty, she has developed a spiritual life and practice that has propelled much of her photographic work. Gradually she accomplished what she was striving for in drawing and painting, through photography. Her mother was also an artist who left behind a legacy of unknown work and part of Ruth’s determination as an artist is to reward her mother for her efforts and to create a continuum. She was awarded a NYFA grant in photography in 2016 and had a solo exhibition at The Center for Photography in Woodstock, NY in 2020. Her book Alms was exhibited at The Griffin Museum of Photography and Manenti received an Honourable Mention in the 2021 Julia Margaret Cameron Award and 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts in Photography. She lives in the Catskill Mountains in New York with her husband and 3 cats. www.ruthlauermanenti.com Dr. Grant Scott is the 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). Podcast music: Written and performed by Dr. Laura Ritchie www.lauraritchie.com © Grant Scott 2022

In episode 194 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on photography as evidence of important events, what it takes to get commissioned and why you don't need to buy more cameras and lenses. Plus this week photographer Frederic Aranda take's 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?’ Self-taught portrait photographer Frederic Aranda was born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1980 and came to the UK over 20 years ago to undertake a degree in Japanese at Oxford University. He has been based in London ever since and is known for a colourful but pared-down form of portraiture and group portraits for clients such as Vanity Fair and Patek Philippe, Harrods. Two books of his work have been published, Electric Fashion in 2017 and California Elegance: Portraits From the Final Frontier in 2021. He has had three solo exhibitions of his work in London, the most recent of which was in the Raphael Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Aranda was given a Fellowship to the Royal Photographic Society in 2021 and his work has also been recognised by the International Photography Awards, the RPS International Photography Exhibition and The Swiss Photo Award. Aranda was also a finalist in the Sony World Photography Awards and the Aesthetica Art Prize. Last year his work was part of a group show on Holocaust Survivors living in the UK at the Imperial War Museum, London. https://fredericaranda.com Dr. Grant Scott is the 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). Podcast music: Written and performed by Dr. Laura Ritchie www.lauraritchie.com © Grant Scott 2022

In episode 193 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the difference between an amateur and professional photography, the need for a new photography TV series and the challenges photography could face in 2022. Plus this week photographer Art Streiber take's 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?’ Art Streiber is an American portrait photographer best known for his portraits of entertainment and sports personalities. Streiber studied at Stanford University, graduated in 1984, and has been based in his hometown of Los Angeles since 1994. He is a regular contributor to the major Hollywood studios and networks, having shot posters and related promotional collateral for ABC, CBS, NBC, HBO, MTV, Universal Studios, DreamWorks, and Sony Pictures. Streiber has also photographed behind the scenes at the Academy Awards every year since 2000 to the present day, excluding 2009. In 2005, American Photo magazine named him one of the '100 Most Important People in Photography' and in 2008, the Pacific Design Center in California presented Streiber with the Star of Design Award for photography. Streiber lectures and teaches frequently and is represented by Giant Artists. www.artstreiber.com Dr.Grant Scott is the 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). Podcast music: Written and performed by Dr. Laura Ritchie www.lauraritchie.com © Grant Scott 2022

In this extended episode, editor, writer and curator of photography Bill Shapiro looks back, and forward with Grant at the dominant themes within photography of 2021 including: is humanist photography coming back? Is street photography over? What's after Instagram? Online exhibitions and experiences, photography as evidence, archives and the cloud, and yes, NFTs! Grant also marks the passing of the photographers we have lost in 2021. 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. 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. © Grant Scott 2022

In episode 191 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Happy Holidays, whilst not taking things too seriously. Plus this week curator, editor, and photographic consultant Zelda Cheatle take's 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?’ Zelda Cheatle’s life in photography and the arts has encompassed being a photographer, gallerist, publisher, curator, lecturer and author. She began her gallery career at The Photographers’ Gallery, London working with internationally renowned photographers and emerging British artists using photography. In 1989, she started the Zelda Cheatle Gallery, first in Cecil Court, WC2 , then Mount Street W.1 and finally in Shoreditch until 2005, where, she exhibited important work by British and international artists – including Helen Chadwick, Eve Arnold, Berenice Abbott, Sarah Moon, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Lee Miller, Robert Frank and Abbas Kiarostami among many others. Her gallery also consistently showed young and emerging artists and the Zelda Cheatle Press published monographs of contemporary British artists and photographers. As lead curator for the World Photography Organisation for many years, Cheatle has spoken extensively about photography and its place as fine art. Her recent photographic exhibitions include Cecil Beaton in both the State Hermitage, St Petersburg and Blenheim Palace; Yan Wang Preston in China; photography from the Gulf countries exhibited in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the Dubai Photo Exhibition comprising 868 photo works. She began and managed the first Photography Fund, that collected, exhibited and published a collection of over 6,000 iconic prints including a Russian 20th century collection, Eve Arnolds vintage archive and icons and masterpieces of the European and American schools. She is an Honorary Fellow at the University of the Arts Bournemouth, a Member of the Council of Friends, National Gallery of Ireland and has been on the Advisory Committee, Photo Shanghai, Chair of judges, Kraszna Krausze book Award and a Nominator for the Deutsche Borse and Prix Pictet competitions. Zelda Cheatle continues to curate exhibitions and publish, review and challenge photography. www.zeldacheatle.com Dr.Grant Scott is the 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). Comedy Extracts: Hancock's Half Hour: The Photographer, Series 6 Episode 8. 1960 People Like Us: The Photographer, Series 1, Episode 2. 1999 The Sketch Show, Series 1, Episode 6. 2001 Podcast music: Written and performed by Dr. Laura Ritchie www.lauraritchie.com © Grant Scott 2021

In episode 190 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on creative freedom, preparing digital images for print and this year's Christmas for photographers. Plus this week photographer Jefferey Stockbridge take 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?’ Jeffrey Stockbridge was born in 1982 and is a Philadelphia-based photographer and fine art printer. Stockbridge graduated from Drexel University in 2005 and opened a premier fine-art printing business, Stockbridge Fine Art Print in 2009. He is known for his large-format colour photographs that document and humanize the elusive underbelly of inner-city life and his work has been featured in group exhibitions at The National Portrait Gallery in London, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Delaware Art Museum, The Woodmere Art Museum, The Fleisher Art Memorial and the DCCA. His body of work, Kensington Blues, documents the trials and tribulations of those affected by drug addiction and prostitution along Kensington Avenue in North Philadelphia. Audio interviews, journal entries and photographs, made over a period of five years, come together to tell the stories of those struggling to survive the neighbourhood and themselves. www.jeffreystockbridge.com 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 2021

In episode 189 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the basics of photography, smartphone photography, documenting the personal and the noise surrounding NFTs. Plus this week photographers Ana Maria Arevalo Gosen and Juan Aballe take on the challenge of supplying Grant with an audio file no longer than 5 minutes in length in which they answer the question ‘What Does Photography Mean to You?’ Ana Maria Arevalo Gosen was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and is now based between Bilbao, Spain and Venezuela. After studying political science, she graduated from the ETPA, a French photography school in Toulouse, in 2014. She is driven by the ambition to shed light on the effects of the current economic crisis inside the Venezuelan society and her work has an empathic, environmentally and socially critical focus based on long-term stories formed from in-depth investigations. Her project Días Eternos, about the conditions of women in Venezuelan prisons, is the recipient of the Women Photograph + Nikon Grant 2018. In January 2020 she was the winner of the Lucas Dolega International Price and in May 2020 she was a finalist in the International Women in Photography  Association awards. Also in 2020, Arevalo Gosen became a National Geographic Explorer. Her project Dias Eternos revealing the conditions of women in pretrial detention and prisons in Venezuela, won the 2020 Lucas Dolega International Award as well as the Lumix Photo Award 2020. https://anamariaarevalogosen.com Juan Aballe started printing his photographs whilst studying chemistry at University in Madrid and Berlin. After graduating as a chemist, he decided to devote himself to photography and visual media. He studied at the school of the International Center of Photography, New York, and later obtained his Masters in Photography at the EFTI School, Madrid. Juan’s work has been exhibited and published internationally and he has been awarded grants from institutions such as the Spanish Ministry of Culture, and the Fundación Botín. He has lived in Germany and the U.S.A. and is currently based in a small town in the mountains near Madrid. His first self-published photobook, Nachbar (neighbour in German), consists of 36 photographs from the same view of the building in front of his flat in East Berlin, photographed for over a year. In 2014 the independent publisher Fuego Books published his project Country Fictions, photographed in rural areas of the Iberian Peninsula between 2011 and 2013, in the aftermath of a profound economic crisis in Spain. In 2021 his work Last Best Hope, developed in the city of Oakland, California, will be published by Another Place Press. www.juanaballe.com Dr.Grant Scott is the 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 2021

In episode 188 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on learning and teaching, the lack of rules in photography and why there is no quick and easy solution to success. Plus this week photographer Polly Alderton 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?’ Polly Alderton is a British documentary and portrait photographer, who studied Fine Art at the Byam Shaw School of Art and Central St. Martins, and whose work is centred around the documentation of family and examining the class system in the UK. Her work concentrates on her immediate surroundings, with her family often being in the spotlight. ​Alderton's images have been published in The Sunday Times, The Observer, Invisible Britain: Portraits of Hope and Resilience, Portrait of Britain vol.1 & vol.3., and ID magazine, amongst others. In 2017 she produced a short film titled 12 Hours in North Essex for VSCO and in 2019 she was awarded the Firstsite Project Bursary to build on her independent project, Burning House. In 2021 Setanta Books, published Alderton's work in a monograph titled Polly Alderton. She also works as a stills photographer with the BBC, notably photographing David Attenborough in Climate Change: The Facts and working with Martin Parr on a series of idents for BBC One. http://www.dollyandfife.com ecturer 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’s book What Does Photography Mean to You? including 89 photographers who have contributed to the A Photographic Life podcast is on sale now £9.99 https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/ © Grant Scott 2021

In episode 187 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the potential need for a new name for digital capture, how to educate a client and when to turn down a commission and why to do it. He also marks the death of photographer Tom Stoddart. Plus this week photographer Ilona Langbroek 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?’ Ilona Langbroek graduated with honours from the Fotoacademie in Amsterdam in 2019 and is now based in Hilversum, The Netherlands. Langbroek invites the viewer to become part of a memory, through metaphorical representations of memories and fantasies. Utilizing a strong contrast between light and dark, she creates a twilight zone aesthetic as a metaphor for the disappearing past. To achieve this, she uses the soft lighting used by painters of the 17th century Dutch Golden Age, such as Vermeer, Rembrandt or the Italian painter Caravaggio. This approach has led to numerous bodies of work including the series Silent Loss, a personal series based on her family history in the former Dutch East Indies. Langbroek has been presented with numerous awards for her work and has been exhibited internationally. www.ilonalangbroek.com 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’s book What Does Photography Mean to You? including 89 photographers who have contributed to the A Photographic Life podcast is on sale now £9.99 https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/what-does-photography-mean-to-you/ © Grant Scott 2021