A Photographic Life The United Nations of Photography

In episode 281 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the time it takes to find a visual language, how simple things are complex and the connections between the history of art and photography.

Plus this week, photographer Ian 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?’

Ian Hill is based in Cumbria, in the north-west of England, and works in black and white 35mm film.
His work is led by an attempt to respond to what he sees as environmental crisis in terms of what he photographs, where he photographs, and how he photographs. This has led to an increasing focus on the local, the small-scale, the un-noticed hedgerow plants, gate latches, abandoned walls and sheepfolds. It has also led to changes in his technical approach as he now uses environmentally benign chemicals. He states that his work has helped him to re-define his photography, as he works on projects which speak more about the local, the need for nurture, and about our connection with the land. He has published three books of his work The Fisher King, Alchemy and Lineage. https://printedland.weebly.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.

Scott’s next book Condé Nast Have Left The Building: Six Decades of Vogue House will be published by Orphans Publishing in the Spring of 2024.

© Grant Scott 2023

In episode 280 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the need for photographic education, how having heroes does not have to be negative and a new event concerning photography and the commonwealth.

Plus this week, photographer Ave Pildas 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?’

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ave Pildas worked as a photo stringer for Downbeat Magazine in the Ohio Valley and Pennsylvania in the 1960's. In 1971 he began working as the Art Director at Capitol Records in Hollywood and designed and photographed album covers for the label's recording artists. He then launched a career as a freelance photographer and designer soon after, specialising in architectural and corporate photography. His photographs have been exhibited in one man shows at the: Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Photographers Gallery, London, Janus Gallery, Los Angeles, Gallerie Diaframma, Milan, and in numerous group shows. Photographs by Pildas are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Bibliotheca National, Paris; the University of Arizona as well as numerous other public and private collections. He is a Professor Emeritus at Otis College of Design, Los Angeles and currently lives in Santa Monica, CA in a solar powered, zero-scaped home and studio he collaborated on with W3 Architects. He is digitally archiving his vintage work, and continues with new projects while mentoring young talent. www.avepildas.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.

Scott’s next book Condé Nast Have Left The Building: Six Decades of Vogue House will be published by Orphans Publishing in the Spring of 2024.

© Grant Scott 2023

In 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 photographic pivot. How to move from one area to another, utilise transferable skills and build a professional practice for the 21st Century.

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.

Scott’s next book Condé Nast Have Left The Building: Six Decades of Vogue House will be published by Orphans Publishing in the Spring of 2024.

© Grant Scott 2023

In episode 278 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on not getting bored with photography, photographers obsessed with kit of all kinds, the slow death of the NFT and finding new ways to say new things with a camera.

Plus this week, photographer Massimo Leardini 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?’

Originally from Cattolica, in the Italian Province of Rimini, Massimo Leardini has been based in Norway for the past 30 years where he works with a small number of models on extended collaborations. He has published several books of his work including Scandinavian in 2013, Catarsi in 2015, Primitive in 2016 and In Between in 2017. In 2020, he published ELV in which he explores his fascination with the female body and the landscape. Presenting a series of images including contorted fragments of the female body, set deep within the primordial forests of Scandinavia. His work has been widely exhibited internationally and in Norway. www.leardini.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.

Scott’s next book Condé Nast Have Left The Building: Six Decades of Vogue House will be published by Orphans Publishing in the Spring of 2024.

© Grant Scott 2023

In episode 277 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on understanding and promoting contemporary landscape photography, when clients are made redundant, and what a photographer leaves behind.

Plus this week, photographer Nicholas Sinclair 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 Sinclair was born in London in 1954 and studied Fine Art and Art History at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne between 1973 to 1976. His career as a photographer began in 1982 while playing the drums in a Moroccan circus when he began taking photographs of the circus acts between performances, photographs that were first published by The British Journal of Photography in 1983 and exhibited at The University of Sussex in the same year. After the season ended, he visited other circuses with the aim of extending the series. This work was subsequently shown at The National Theatre in London in 1985 and at The Photography Centre of Athens in 1986. In 1987 he began photographing British artists in their studios a series of portraits that spans thirty years and includes Anthony Caro, Gillian Wearing, Frank Auerbach, Gilbert & George, Paula Rego and Richard Hamilton. Work from this series is now in the permanent collections of European museums and galleries including The National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, amongst other institutions. Forty-seven of these portraits are in the collection of Pallant House Gallery in Chichester where they were exhibited in 2014. In 1995 he was commissioned by Brighton Museum & Art Gallery to make a series of photographs of contemporary fetishism for inclusion in the exhibition Fetishism: Visualising Power and Desire. In 2002 Sinclair published his first book of landscape photographs entitled Crossing the Water, a series made on the perimeter of a lake over a twelve-month period. In 2003 he was made a Hasselblad Master and in 2009 Sinclair moved to Berlin and established a studio there in 2011. In 2019 a German production company made a thirty-minute documentary about his work and he was appointed Visiting Professor at Richmond, The American International University in London. In 2021 Sinclair published Polaroids, a book of studio portraits to mark ten years of working in the studio and a short film entitled Rhythm of the Blood. He is currently working on a new series of photographs titled Neon Trees Miscellany made in East Berlin. www.nicholassinclair.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.

Scott’s next book Condé Nast Have Left The Building: Six Decades of Vogue House will be published by Orphans Publishing in the Spring of 2024.

© Grant Scott 2023

In the third of three special episodes UNP founder and curator Grant Scott looks at where we have been over the past decades with photographic practice to help identify themes and recurring issues that have formed the foundation for where photography is today in the 21st Century.

Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts.

© Grant Scott 2023

Image: Charles C. Ebbets in 1932

Music: © Grant Campbell 2023
https://grantcampbell.bandcamp.com/music