A Photographic Life

In episode 128 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering PHD's in photography, yet more 'pay to play' scams, and photography's response to social distancing.  Plus this week photographer Nancy Borowick 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?’ Nancy Borowick is an internationally renowned photographer, author, teacher and speaker, delivering over 50 speaking engagements each year around the world, bringing her personal story to universities, hospitals, oncology units and community groups globally. Nancy is a graduate of the International Center of Photography and has exhibited her work in over 100 cities. Working regularly with the New York Times since 2013, she has told the intimate stories of people and places from every corner of the globe winning her major accolades and awards, such as World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International and most recently the 2018 Humanitarian Award from the organization Women That Soar for her photography and recent monograph, The Family Imprint. She is a Sony Artisan of Imagery and in 2019 was invited to become a Kickstarter Thought Leader.  Over the last decade, Nancy has narrowed the focus of her work, telling stories of health, struggle and personal relationships, using compassion, humility and trust as tools to connect with and explore the lives of her subjects. Her work has been featured in numerous newspapers and magazines, including National Geographic, Time Magazine, CNN, PDN, O the Oprah Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Audubon Magazine and Glamour Magazine. 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, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Taylor Francis 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Taylor Francis 2019). His next book What Does Photography Mean to You? will be published in late 2020. © Grant Scott 2020

In episode 127 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed marking the death of Harry Evans and his importance to photography, rejecting the need to label photographers by practice and celebrating the serendipity of consequence.  Plus this week photographer Clare Strand 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?’ Clare Strand is a British conceptual photographer based in Brighton and Hove, England. Her photography has been published in the Gone Astray, 2003, Clare Strand: Photoworks Monograph, 2009, Skirts, 2013 and Girl Plays with Snake, 2016. Strands work has been widely exhibited in venues such as The Centre Pompidou, Tate Britain, Salzburg Museum of Modern Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her work is held in the collections of MOMA, SFMoma, The Center Pompidou, The British Council, The Arts Council; The NY Public Library and Cornell University.  In 2019 she was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize and awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. Clare is also one half of the collaborative partnership MacDonaldStrand  and Head of the Intangiable for The Institute of Unnecessary Research. Clare Strand is a British conceptual photographer based in Brighton and Hove, England. Her photography has been published in the Gone Astray, 2003, Clare Strand: Photoworks Monograph, 2009, Skirts, 2013 and Girl Plays with Snake, 2016. Strands work has been widely exhibited in venues such as The Centre Pompidou, Tate Britain, Salzburg Museum of Modern Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her work is held in the collections of MOMA, SFMoma, The Center Pompidou, The British Council, The Arts Council; The NY Public Library and Cornell University.  In 2019 she was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize and awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. Clare is also one half of the collaborative partnership MacDonaldStrand  and Head of the Intangiable for The Institute of Unnecessary Research.

In episode 126 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed questioning the need to deconstruct photography, considering the state of art photography, setting up your own photo talks and revealing how the podcast is constructed.  Plus this week photographer Seamus Murphy 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?’ Seamus Murphy grew up in Ireland and is now based in London. He is the recipient of seven World Press Photo awards for his photographic work in Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Peru and Ireland. Seamus received The World Understanding Award from POYi in the USA for his work from Afghanistan and a film he made based around this work was nominated for an Emmy and won the Liberty in Media Prize in 2011. His work has been published and exhibited widely. He has made films for The New Yorker and Channel 4 Television in the UK and is the author of four books including A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan in 2008 and I Am The Beggar of the World in 2014. Seamus has collaborated with the musician PJ Harvey on her projects Let England Shake and The Hope Six Demolition Project, for which he won a Q Award for Best Music Film in 2016. Murphy and Harvey collaborated on The Hollow of the Hand published in 2015, a book of his photography and her poetry. An exhibition and live presentation of The Hollow of the Hand work took place at the Royal Festival Hall, London in 2015 and at Les Recontres d’Arles in France in 2016. His latest book The Republic is an immediate and personal portrait of Ireland and was exhibited at The Little Museum in Dublin in 2017. www.seamusmurphy.com 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, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Taylor Francis 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Taylor Francis 2019). His next book What Does Photography Mean to You? will be published in late 2020.

In episode 125 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering the importance of seeing, the personal and history to photography, and how to avoid drowning in the ordinary.  Plus this week photographer Greg Marinovich 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?’ Greg Marinovich is co-author of The Bang Bang Club, a nonfiction book on South Africa’s transition to democracy that has been translated into six languages. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and filmmaker. He spent 25 years covering conflict around the globe, with his writing and photographs appearing in magazines and newspapers worldwide. His 2012 award-winning investigations into the Marikana massacre of miners by police was called the most important South African journalism post-Apartheid, the book will be published early in 2016. Marinovich was Editor-In-Chief of the Twenty Ten project, tutoring and managing over 100 African journalists’ work in all forms of media. He gives lectures and workshops on human rights, justice photography and storytelling. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2013/14 and currently teaches visual journalism at Boston University’s Journalism school and the Harvard summer school. https://gregmarinovich.photoshelter.com 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, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Taylor Francis 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Taylor Francis 2019). His next book What Does Photography Mean to You? will be published in late 2020. His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay can now be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47549knOU&t=3915s. © Grant Scott 2020

In episode 124 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering the charity print sale and the photographic road trip. He also allows this week's contributor to go way over time!  Plus this week photographer Nicholas Syracuse 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?’ Nicholas Syracuse, was born in Arizona and raised in the Washington DC area, where he studied photography at the Corcoran School of Art before studying at The Northwest Photographic Center in Seattle. His largest series of photographs is his ongoing Highway project, with photographs from Seattle, San Francisco, Phoenix, Texas, South Carolina, Indiana, and many points in between taken. He has been working on this project for the past twenty years. Film Director’s Sam Roden and Nick Hartanto made a feature documentary film Traveller featu his work, that premiered at the Ashland Independent Film Festival in Ashland Oregon in 2015. www.roadphoto.com You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast 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, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Taylor Francis 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Taylor Francis 2019). His next book What Does Photography Mean to You? will be published in 2021. His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay can now be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47549knOU&t=3915s. © Grant Scott 2020

In episode 123 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering why some photographers get so angry and tribal, the role of the agent and why it takes more than a website to get commissioned. He also reflects on the power of the family album. Plus this week photographer Melissa Breyer 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?’ After a classical art training, a masters degree in Museum Studies, and having worked in print, writing for magazines and editing books, Melissa Breyer tumbled into photography "I literally bought a Photography for Dummies book and a grown-up camera and went to work" she says.  A native Californian now living in New York, she documents the city's streets. Breyer’s work has been exhibited across the globe and has been featured in national and international publications, including National Geographic and The New York Times. With a background in food, health, nature, and design, Breyer is an expert and author who has been writing about sustainability since 2001 and is the co-author of the best-selling, Build Your Running Body and the award-winning True Food: Eight Simple Steps to a Healthier You. She has written for the Treehugger website since 2012, and has been Treehugger’s editorial director since 2015. In addition, she has developed hundreds of recipes for publication, has run 10 marathons, and moonlights as a pastry chef. www.melissabreyer.com You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast 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, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Taylor Francis 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Taylor Francis 2019). His next book What Does Photography Mean to You? will be published in 2021. His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay can now be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47549knOU&t=3915s. © Grant Scott 2020

In episode 122 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering the generational nature of photography and photographers, the need to listen to experts and identifying negative aspects whilst recognising the positive. He also reflects on the need to reply to emails and that quantity does not always mean quality. Plus this week photographer Elin Berge 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?’ Elin Berge lives and works in Umeå, Sweden. She began her professional photography career at Västerbotten’s Folkblad in Umeå and studied at Umeå University before studying photojournalism at the Nordic School of Photography, Biskops-Arnö. She has worked for several major newspapers in Sweden and since 2006 has been one of eight members of the photo Moment Agency. Her work is held in the in the Hasselblad Foundation collection amongst others and she has recieved numerous awards and grants, including from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee and the Swedish Authors Fund. In addition to her own projects with photography and documentary film, she works on assignment for numerous clients. Elin has published four photo books, Veils, 2006, The Land of Queens, 2009, Kingdom, 2015,  Awakening, 2020. www.elinberge.com You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast 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, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Taylor Francis 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Taylor Francis 2019). His next book What Does Photography Mean to You? will be published in 2021. His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay can now be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47549knOU&t=3915s. © Grant Scott 2020

In episode 121 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering photographic ethics, common decency, empathy, inclusion and the importance of rules and knowing when to break them.  Plus this week photographer Daniel Meadows 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?’ Daniel Meadows is an English photographer born in 1952. Meadows studied at Manchester Polytechnic. While a student he was inspired by a lecture by Bill Jay and rented a barber's in 1972, inviting people to come into the Free Photographic Shop to have their photographs taken for no charge. Inspired by what Jay had said about Benjamin Stone's travel around Britain, and for 14 months from 1973 he travelled around England in the Free Photographic Omnibus. Some of this work was published in Meadows' first book, Living Like This, 1975. Meadows went on to photograph the northwest of England and Factory Records in the 1970s and in the 1980s to study the people of a middle-class London suburb of Bromley the latter published as Nattering in Paradise. In 1983 David Hurn invited him to help teach the Documentary Photography course at Newport College of Art and Design. From 1994 he has taught at Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. From 2001 to 2006 Meadows was creative director of Capture Wales, a BBC Wales project. The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford acquired his archive in March 2018. In autumn 2019, the Bodleian celebrated the acquisition with an exhibition of Meadows' work, Now and Then, accompanied by a book. www.photobus.co.uk You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast 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, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Taylor Francis 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Taylor Francis 2019). His next book What Does Photography Mean to You? will be published in 2021. His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay can now be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47549knOU&t=3915s. © Grant Scott 2020

In episode 120 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering the payment for image usage, calling for an end to indecipherable writing on photography and reflecting on the potential for a new era of photographic road trips. Plus this week photographer Ethan Hill 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?’ Brooklyn based Ethan Hill is an award winning portrait photographer who attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. His projects are wide ranging and his subjects include everyone from A-list celebrities in film, theatre and music to scientists working on cutting-edge research in medicine and technology. Clients include Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Food + Wine, Newsweek, Esquire, The New York Times, A & M Records, Hollywood Records, Atlantic Records, UPS, and Dell Computers. Aside from commercial assignments, Ethan teaches portraiture at the International Center for Photography, New York and is working on his first full-length feature documentary film. His work is included in the permanent collection of The National Portrait Gallery, London. www.ethanhill.com You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast 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, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Taylor Francis 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Taylor Francis 2019). His next book What Does Photography Mean to You? will be published in 2021. His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay can now be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47549knOU&t=3915s. © Grant Scott 2020

In episode 119 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering the pyramid scheme of photography, photo gambling and pressing the video button. He also suggests buying a kid a camera! Plus this week photographer Michael Jang 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?’ For the last forty years, Michael Jang has earned a living as a portrait photographer, capturing iconic figures such as Jimi Hendrix, Robin Williams, and William Burroughs, among others. However, he has also been simultaneously infiltrating and documenting subcultures: from celebrity parties in Beverly Hills to the youth of Castro’s Cuba, from South City gangs to Old West rodeos, and from the punk rock scene of the late 1970s to the teenage garage bands of the early 2000s. Jang was born in Marysville, California in 1951 and studied at CalArts in Los Angeles, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1973. While at CalArts, Jang photographed the student environment and in 2014  published the work in a book titled College. During his time at CalArts he used fake press credentials to access events and parties at The Beverly Hilton hotel, where he photographed a range of people from the unknown to famous musicians and politicians. In the late 1970s, he moved to San Francisco, where he received an MFA degree from the San Francisco Art Institute. Jang continued to pursue creative projects while earning a living as a commercial photographer in San Francisco and was relatively unknown as an artist until 2002, when the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art acquired several of his photographs. His personal projects include the 1973 series The Jangs that documents the assimilation of his Asian-American family and his 1983 series Summer Weather documenting auditioning weather reporters. In 2019 the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts staged a retrospective exhibition of his work and the same year, Atelier Editions published a retrospective monograph of his work titled Who is Michael Jang? www.michaeljang.com If you have enjoyed this podcast why not check out our A Photographic Life Podcast Plus. Created as a learning resource that places the power of learning into the hands of the learner. To suggest where you can go, what you can read, who you can discover and what you can question to further your own knowledge, experience and enjoyment of photography. It will be inspiring, informative and enjoyable! You can find out here: www.patreon.com/aphotographiclifepodcast You can also access and subscribe to these podcasts at SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/unofphoto on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-photographic-life/id1380344701 on Player FM https://player.fm/series/a-photographic-life and Podbean www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/i6uqx-6d9ad/A-Photographic-Life-Podcast 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, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Taylor Francis 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Taylor Francis 2019). His next book What Does Photography Mean to You? will be published in 2021. His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay can now be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47549knOU&t=3915s. © Grant Scott 2020