A Photographic Life - 129: Plus Yael Martínez

In episode 129 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed stating that it's okay not to understand everything, reflecting on the excessive interpretation of images, and noting how Zoom is taking over our lives, but not in a negative way. Plus this week photographer Yael Martínez 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?’ Yael Martínez's studied at the Graphic Arts Institute of Oaxaca. His work explores the connections between, poverty, narcotraffic, organised crime, and the effects they have on the communities in his native Guerrero in southern Mexico. In 2015 he was selected in the Joop Swart Master Class 'Latinoamerica' and received the Magnum Emergency Fund in 2016. In 2017 he was named one of PDN´s 30 new and emerging photographers. Martínez was a Finalist for a Eugene Smith Grant in 2015 and 2016 and in 2019 he was named as the winner of the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography. In 2019 he received second prize, in the World Press Photo Long-Term Projects, for his work The House That Bleeds. He has also been nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award, the Prix Pictet and the ICP Infinity Award. In 2020 Martínez was accepted as a member of the Magnum agency. He is based in Guerrero, Mexico. 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. www.yaelmartinez.com © Grant Scott 2020