A Photographic Life - 224: Plus Sean Lotman

In episode 224 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on who decides if images are low quality and how, the importance of research in making images, Annie Leibovitz's Ukraine portraits and words on photography that make no sense. Plus this week, photographer Sean Lotman 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?’ A native of Los Angeles, California, Sean Lotman has lived in Japan, first in Tokyo, then in Kyoto, since 2003. Lotman draws his inspiration from narrative fiction as well as cinema, his palette honoring the unreal colours of Technicolor films from the 1940s and 1950s. He creates the psychedelic atmosphere in his work through liberal colour experimentation and an unorthodox dodge-and-burn technique in his darkroom. While printing his images, he is searching for a subjective feeling more resembling reverie than reality. His background is in narrative fiction, and his short stories, essays and poetry have been published online and in print. His first photo book, Sunlanders, was published in 2016, featuring colour darkroom prints made by his own hand. Sean is represented by Galerie Agathe Gaillard in Paris, France and Ibasho in Antwerp, Belgium and he is a member of the photo collective And the Last Waves. The Sniper Paused So He Could Wipe His Brow is his fourth book and was published in 2022. He lives in Kyoto, Japan, with his wife, Ariko, their son, Tennbo, and their dog, Monk. www.seanlotman.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