A Photographic Life

In this special 400th episode UNP founder and curator Grant Scott looks back over the podcast's evolution from idea to reality, from shed to garage and from one man talking into a microphone to live events. Engaging in trans-Atlantic conversations and building an incredible archive of photographers thoughts on photography. Contributors to the mega mix in order of appearance: Tom Stoddart Daniel Meadows Alys Tomlinson Ilona Langbroek Ashleigh Coleman David Rothenberg The Guzman Harry Borden Fabio Ponzio Jason Langer Kenneth Jarecke Katherine MacDaid Jill Hannes Mark Klett Greg Marinovich Paul Lowe Anna Boyiazis Andrew Jackson Jeremy Nicholl Simon Roberts Yukari Chikura Polly Alderton Seamus Murphy Sirrka Konttinen Yael Martinez Venetia Dearden Derek Ridgers Dan Burn Forti David Eustace Julia Fullerton Batten JM Golding Stephen Dupont Tim Davis Robert Trachtenberg Ruth Lauer Manetti Richard Ansett Reuben Wu Pixy Liao Paul Russell Mona Kuhn Melissa Breyer Buku Sarker Chris Floyd Alys Tomlinson Aaron Turner AD Coleman Brian Griffin Claire Thomas Cathal McNaughton Craig Easton Dafydd Jones Danna Singer Ed Kashi Jim Mortram Daniel Meadows David Eustace Art Streiber Tom Oldham Clare Strand 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

In this special episode, editor, writer and curator of photography Bill Shapiro, art director, creative director and lecturer Fiona Hayes and UNP founder and curator Grant Scott look back on 2025 and forward to 2026 reflecting on photo exhibitions, books, social media, publishing and the expectations of the Twenty First Century photographer. Bill Shapiro Bill Shapiro served as the Editor-in-Chief of LIFE, the legendary photo magazine. He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of LIFE.com, which won the 2011 National Magazine Award for digital photography. 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. 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. She currently divides her time between design consultancy for commercial clients, and lecturing. 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. 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 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 2025

In this special episode recorded at our A Photographic Life Live 2025 event at Oxford Brookes University Grant speaks with photographic historian Dr Michael Pritchard concerning the importance of creating an organised archive, making money from an archive and how to leave your archive for those who will inherit it. Dr Michael Pritchard Dr Michael Pritchard has a practical knowledge of studio and location photography, darkroom processing and printing, and digital photography.  He joined Christie’s, the fine art auction house, as a photography specialist in 1986 and grew auctions of cameras and photographic equipment and associated material, setting many world auction records. He was also an auctioneer, and became a Christie’s Director and International Business Director for collectibles across the company. In 2007 he became a consultant for Christie’s working on a new cataloguing and property control system. He also undertook a PhD in history of photography between 2007 and 2010. His thesis examined photographic manufacturing and retailing from 1839-1914.  He has taught history of photography at MA level at De Montfort University and catalogued and organised the Kodak Historical Collection at the British Library for public access. Pritchard was recruited to the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) in 2011 as Chief Executive, becoming Director of Programmes from 2018-2023. During his tenure he brought a renewed public profile for the RPS  and oversaw an expansion in its public activities, not least growing its membership to the largest in its history. In 2024 he established his own consultancy. He continues to support the RPS. Pritchard continues to actively research the history of photography and regularly delivers conference papers and publishes across the field. He edits the British Photographic History blog and The PhotoHistorian. His knowledge is regularly sought and he shares his expertise and knowledge of photography and its history with other academics and institutions, students, collectors and the general public.  He gives regular talks and has broadcast on a wide range of photographic subjects. His most recent book is A History of Photography in 50 Cameras (Bloomsbury).  https://mpritchard.squarespace.com 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. © Grant Scott 2025

In this special episode recorded at our A Photographic Life Live 2025 event at Oxford Brookes University Grant speaks with photographer and filmmaker Chris Floyd focusing on his approach to the photographic portrait, and the physical, spiritual and mental requirements of photographing celebrities. Chris Floyd Chris Floyd is a British photographer and film maker.  His photographic work has appeared in some of the world’s most highly respected publications, including Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Harpers Bazaar, GQ, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine and Wallpaper* among others. In April 2021 Floyd was commissioned by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to photograph them at Kensington Palace in London in honour of their tenth wedding anniversary. In 2022 he published his first monograph dedicated to the broad sweep of his career 'NOT JUST PICTURES' is a 320 page volume, of portraits, with 60 pieces of written text that tell the stories behind some of his favourite pictures. Floyd has produced commercial work for Apple, Avis, Berry Bros. & Rudd, Glenfiddich, Haleon, Open University, Philips, Sony, The National Lottery, and Virgin Radio. As a director he has produced moving image work for Avis, BMW, Anthropologie, Nissan, Mr Porter, Sleaford Mods, The Smithsonian, Space NK, UBS, and Virgin Radio. www.chrisfloyd.com 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. © Grant Scott 2025

In this special episode recorded at our A Photographic Life Live 2025 event at Oxford Brookes University Grant speaks with photographer and filmmaker focusing on her dedication to the long form project, her film Mother Vera and the the need for dedicated research when building a body of work. Alys Tomlinson Tomlinson was born and grew up in Brighton, UK and studied English, literature and communications at the University of Leeds.After graduating in the mid-1990s, she moved to New York City for a year, where she undertook her first commission as a photographer, shooting all the pictures for the Time Out Guide to the city. She returned to London to study photography at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and later completed a part-time MA in the anthropology of travel, tourism and pilgrimage at SOAS University of London. During each of several later trips to New York City over four years, she walked the 14 mile length of Broadway, first in full taking 10 hours then in sections, and making street portraits. This resulted in the book Following Broadway (2013). Tomlinson's book Ex-Voto (2019) documents ex-voto (votive offerings made to a saint or to a divinity) left at several European destinations of Christian pilgrimage: the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, France; Ballyvourney, Ireland; and the Grabarka Holy Mount in Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland, close to the border with Belarus. Tomlinson's film Mother Vera, accompanies her Ex-Voto work. https://www.motherverafilm.co.uk Lost Summer (2020) is a book of black and white portraits of young people aged between 15 and 19 in north London. With the cancellation of final exams and ritual events such as proms and graduations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tomlinson photographed her subjects in the outfits they would have worn to prom, in their gardens and local parks. Her latest project Gli Isolani (The Islanders) was published by GOST Books in 2022. Alys’s work is collected privately and is in the following collections: National Portrait Gallery (London), The Rencontres d’Arles Collection, The Bodleian Library, AmberSide Collection. https://alystomlinson.co.uk 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. Image: Vera by Alys Tomlinson © Grant Scott 2025