A Photographic Life

The United Nations of Photography
  • 4.8 (40)
  • Arts
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"To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It's a way of life." Henri Cartier-Bresson. Whatever your level of engagement with photography The Photographic Life Podcast explains the realities of working with and learning about the medium. Each week photographer, writer, lecturer, filmmaker, and BBC Radio contributor Dr. Grant Scott reflects on news, discussions, themes and issues surrounding the photographic community. This is a podcast for those who do not want kit reviews, photoshop techniques, marketing babble or camera talk. It is for those who want informed conversation about photography and life. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of www.unitednationsofphotography.com, a Senior Lecturer in Photography at Oxford Brookes University, UK, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained, The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography and New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography. His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay has been screened across the UK, and in Canada and the US. Podcast music: Written and performed by Laura Ritchie.

  1. 3d ago

    A Photographic Life-432: Ragnar Axelsson, Sebastian Meyer, Sirkka Konttinen, Mimi Plumb & Mona Kuhn

    In the third of a four part 'Summer Special Series' Grant Scott revists photographer contributions answering the question 'What Does Photography Mean to You? 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), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). 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 2026

    A Photographic Life-432: Ragnar Axelsson, Sebastian Meyer, Sirkka Konttinen, Mimi Plumb & Mona Kuhn

  2. Aug 12

    A Photographic Life-431 'Art Streiber, Clare Strand, Elliott Landy, Elinor Carucci, Erwin Olaf & Mark Neville

    In the second of a four part 'Summer Special Series' Grant Scott revists photographer contributions answering the question 'What Does Photography Mean to You? 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), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). 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 2026

    A Photographic Life-431 'Art Streiber, Clare Strand, Elliott Landy, Elinor Carucci, Erwin Olaf & Mark Neville

  3. Aug 5

    A Photographic Life-430: 'Daniel Meadows, Brian Griffin, Polly Alderton, Mark Stienmetz & Paul Lowe'

    In the first of a four part 'Summer Special Series' Grant Scott revists photographer contributions answering the question 'What Does Photography Mean to You? 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), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). 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 2026

    A Photographic Life-430: 'Daniel Meadows, Brian Griffin, Polly Alderton, Mark Stienmetz & Paul Lowe'

  4. Jul 29

    A Photographic Life-429: 'The Proust Photo Quiz' with Photographer Emily Garthwaite

    In this week’s episode photographer and filmmaker Emily Garthwaite takes on our ‘Proust Photo Quiz’. The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust. Proust answered the questionnaire in a confession album, a form of parlour game popular at the end of the 1890s. The album, titled An Album to Record Thoughts, Feelings, etc. was found in 1924 and published in the French literary journal Les Cahiers du Mois. Our ‘Proust Photo Quiz’ is an adaption of the original text. Emily Garthwaite Garthwaite took up photography as a teenager intendeding to pursue painting at Central Saint Martins, but found herself studying Film and Photography. After working in club and fashion photography, she completed a Master of Arts in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the University of Westminster in 2016. It was when she visited India for the first time to scatter her grandmother's ashes in Assam, that she decided to work within photojournalism. The photographs from her months of travel through India were exhibited at the Norman Rea Gallery in 2014 under the title Afterlife. During the summer of 2015, Garthwaite worked with the Rațiu Family Charitable Foundation in Romania, where she documented the salt flats of Turda. In 2017, the Iranian Arts Institute invited her to photograph the Arba'een Pilgrimage, which instigated the series Iraq: Road to Arba'een. She co-directed her first feature-length documentary on the subject titled 41 Days in Iraq on Arba'een or The 40th Day, which screened in 2018 at the Chehelcheragh International Festival. In 2019 she spent time in Dearborn, Michigan capturing its local Muslim community and was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. In 2020, she returned to Iraq, visiting the Zagros Mountains and Tigris River accompanying the Bakhtiari people on their Kooch migration. She exhibited A Journey Down the Tigris River at the Visa pour L'Image in Perpignan, where she won the 2023 ICRC Humanitarian Visa d'or Award, and Tears of the Tigris at the Leica Gallery London. Her project Light Between Mountains received a CCFD–Terre Solidaire grant, while her contributions to the Leon McCaron Noema essay The Last of the Marsh Arabs won her the 2022 Covering Climate Now Award for Photography. In 2024, Save the Children commissioned her to photograph the Yazidi community in Iraq 10 years on from the Yazidi genocide. She is a Leica Ambassador. www.emilygarthwaite.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), Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories (Orphans Publishing 2024). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018. © Grant Scott 2026

    A Photographic Life-429: 'The Proust Photo Quiz' with Photographer Emily Garthwaite

  5. Jul 22

    A Photographic Life-428: 'David Hockney, Top 20 Photographers, Faking It and Photo Censorship'

    In episode 428 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is reflecting on the big and small things that impact on the everyday engagement we all have with photography. 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), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). 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 2026

    A Photographic Life-428: 'David Hockney, Top 20 Photographers, Faking It and Photo Censorship'

  6. Jul 15

    PODCAST: A Photographic Life-427: 'Harry Gruyaert, Photo Judges, World Cup Photos & Staying Young"

    In episode 427 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is reflecting on the big and small things that impact on the everyday engagement we all have with photography. 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), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). 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 2026

    PODCAST: A Photographic Life-427: 'Harry Gruyaert, Photo Judges, World Cup Photos & Staying Young"

  7. Jul 8

    A Photographic Life- 426: 'Josef Koudelka, Selling Prints and Listeners Letters'

    In episode 426 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is reflecting on the big and small things that impact on the everyday engagement we all have with photography. 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), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). 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 2026

    A Photographic Life- 426: 'Josef Koudelka, Selling Prints and Listeners Letters'

  8. Jul 1

    A Photographic Life-425: With Bill Shapiro 'Concept Versus Context'

    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 Bill and Grant take on the concept versus context debate. Mentioned in this episode: www.edwardburtynsky.com https://www.instagram.com/anseladams/?hl=en https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei_63HdYO7I 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 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 2026

    A Photographic Life-425: With Bill Shapiro 'Concept Versus Context'
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4.8
out of 5
40 Ratings

About

"To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It's a way of life." Henri Cartier-Bresson. Whatever your level of engagement with photography The Photographic Life Podcast explains the realities of working with and learning about the medium. Each week photographer, writer, lecturer, filmmaker, and BBC Radio contributor Dr. Grant Scott reflects on news, discussions, themes and issues surrounding the photographic community. This is a podcast for those who do not want kit reviews, photoshop techniques, marketing babble or camera talk. It is for those who want informed conversation about photography and life. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of www.unitednationsofphotography.com, a Senior Lecturer in Photography at Oxford Brookes University, UK, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained, The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography and New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography. His documentary film, Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay has been screened across the UK, and in Canada and the US. Podcast music: Written and performed by Laura Ritchie.

Information

  • Creator
    The United Nations of Photography
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    446
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    A Photographic Life

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