A Photographic Life – Details, episodes & analysis

n this special episode Grant Scott speaks with editor, writer and curator of photography David Campany. This conversation was instigated by an Instagram post Campany made which Grant responded to thanks to one of his podcast listenners. Grant and David's rigorous debate deals with the subject of how a photographer should/could present themselves and issues with gatekeepers. David Campany is a curator, writer, editor who has worked worldwide with institutions including Tate, Whitechapel Gallery London, MoMA New York, Centre Pompidou, Le Bal Paris, ICP New York, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Photographer’s Gallery London, ParisPhoto, PhotoLondon, The National Portrait Gallery London. His work has been published with Aperture, Steidl, MIT Press, Thames & Hudson, Phaidon, MACK, Frieze, The New Yorker, The FT Weekend, and The Telegraph. He has written over three hundred essays for monographs, museums, and magazines, he has a Phd and has received the ICP Infinity Award, the Kraszna-Krausz Book Award, the Alice Award, a Deutscher Fotobuchpreis, and the Royal Photographic Society award. Instagram: davidcampany https://davidcampany.com 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 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. Scott continues to work as a photographer, writer and filmmaker and is the Subject Coordinator for both undergraduate and post graduate study of photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England. Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is now on sale. © Grant Scott 2024

A Photographic Life-337: See/Saw with Fiona Hayes 'Tina Barney, Yasuhiro Ishimoto and Alice Mann' by The United Nations of Photography

In this monthly conversation series Grant Scott speaks with art director, lecturer and creative director Fiona Hayes. In an informal conversation each month Grant and Fiona comment on the photographic environment as they see it through the exhibitions, magazines, talks and events that Fiona has seen over the previous weeks. Fiona Hayes Fiona Hayes is an art director, designer, consultant and lecturer with over 30 years’ experience in publishing, fashion and the art world. She has been a magazine art director ten times: on Punch, Company, Eve, the British and Russian editions of Cosmopolitan, House & Garden,GQ India (based in Mumbai), MyselfGermany (in Munich), and Russian Vogue (twice). Between 2013 and 2019, as Art Director of New Markets and Brand Development for Condé Nast International, based in London and Paris, she oversaw all the company’s launches – 14 magazines, including seven editions of Vogue. She still consults as Design Director at Large for Vogue Hong Kong. In 2002 she founded independent photography magazine DayFour, publishing it continuously until 2012. She is Co-Author and Art Director of The Fashion Yearbook, and creative director of books for South African media consultancy Legacy Creates. Outside the publishing world, she has been Art Director of contemporary art auction house Phillips de Pury in London and New York, and Consultant Art Director of Russian luxury retail group Mercury/TSUM. (Fiona would like to point out she is not Russian: she is proudly Irish and studied Visual Communication and History of Art and Design at NCAD Dublin.) She currently divides her time between design consultancy for commercial clients, and lecturing at Oxford Brookes University, the Condé Nast College of Fashion and Design, London, Nottingham Trent University, Ravensbourne University, and Leeds University. She lives in West London. @theartdictator Dr.Grant Scott After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work zas 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. Scott’s next book is Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is on sale February 2024. Mentioned in this episode: www.iwm.org.uk/events/storyteller-photography-by-tim-hetherington www.horniman.ac.uk/event/adolescent-wonderland/ https://naomihobson.com.au https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/exh-roger-mayne-youth/ © Grant Scott 2024

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

In episode 238 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting nostalgically on the importance of the camera shop, gateways to photography and not being too sensitive as a photographer. Plus this week, photographer Don Tonge 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?’ Don Tonge left Brownlow Fold secondary modern school in Bolton aged15 with no qualifications and started working in the storeroom handing out tools to machinists at Hick Hargreaves Engineering Co, Bolton, he then went into their foundry, but left after six months to start working in the building trade as an insulation engineer. In the late 1960s whilst, working on a job at the Ilford paper and film manufacturers he bought one of their Instamatic kits from their factory shop. He joined Bolton Camera Club in the 1970s and began to enter the club competitions with moderate success before entering competitions in photographic magazines and having his work published. Tonge won the Granada Television “In Focus” Competition around 1980 which resulted in two days of filming at his home and Haydock Park Racecourse with Nobby Clarke a London based press and theatre photographer. Tonge began working as a part-time freelance photographer in the late 1980s turning full-time as a front of house photographer for The Octagon Theatre in Bolton. He was there for 8 years, received his NUJ card and started freelancing for local newspapers and occasionally the national press. He also spent some time working with a Manchester based agency and documented the Strangeways Prison riot. A one-man show of his work was presented at The Salamander Gallery, Bolton and he has collaborated with other other photographers in numerous joint shows. Tonge is currently archiving his disorganised output locating negatives and scanning them. Cafe Royal Books have published three books of Tonge's work from the 1970s. www.instagram.com/dontongephoto/?hl=en 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 237 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on taking inspiration from other photographs, post-graduate photo education and the lack of photography on the radio and television. Plus this week, photographer Max Miechowski 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?’ Max Miechowski is a British photographer based in London. His projects, which centre on themes of community and connection, have been exhibited widely in places such as Paris Photo Fair, Photo London, Peckham 24 and The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery. Miechowski received the Photo London/Nikon Emerging Photographer Award 2022, for his solo exhibition of Land Loss, at Somerset House, London and has been recognised by the Palm Photo Prize, twice as a finalist and once as the recipient of the People’s Choice Award. He has had consecutive winning images in the British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Britain, been awarded LensCulture’s Emerging Talent Award, and featured in the Creative Review Photography Annual in 2018 and 2020. He has been featured in and commissioned by a wide variety of publications and clients including The Guardian, The New York Times, It’s Nice That and The Financial Times. https://maxmiechowski.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 236 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the visual storyteller, not promoting exclusivity, cancelling art and respecting the wedding photographer. Plus this week, photographer Henry Iddon 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?’ Henry Iddon is a photographic and lens-based artist whose practice concerns finding new ways, and reasons, to look at the landscape. He aims to produce work that is multi-layered that can educate and inform audiences. Iddon's work has been mediated through traditional film techniques across all formats, digital stills and moving image capture. His work has been disseminated via wall hung exhibitions, installations and workshops, book works, newsprint publications, online and through film screenings. Iddon's films are held in the National Library of Scotland Screen Archive, and North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University. His 2D work is held in various collections including The Wordsworth Trust; Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, State Library of New South Wales and University of Tucson Library. www.henryiddon.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 third episode of a new 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 importance of the photo book to photographers today, expectations, sustainability and the importance of understanding the publishing environment. 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). 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 234 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the ethics of selling prints, fake images and the importance of family and friends to photographic practice. Plus this week, photographer Cecilia di Paolo 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?’ Cecilia Di Paolo is a London based artist, originating from Italy, who studied photography at the Arts University Bournemouth. Di Paolo’s body of work, primarily realised through photography, film and performance, explores and deconstructs cultural notions of intimacy, tenderness, and love through a dystopian lens. Perhaps more simply understood as a visual exploration of the relationship between humans and objects. At the heart of Cecilia’s work is the intensely human pursuit of connection; a reimagined line between artwork and audience, reaching out and inviting you to affix yourself with the work, fulfilled through the tactility of her self-portraiture and still life. He work has been exhibited in four solo shows To The Ones I've Dates, The Muse Gallery, London 2022, Made to Be Loved, Roshi, London 2020, Made to Be Loved, Locke, London 2018 and Made to Be Loved film screening, London 2018. https://cecedipaolo.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