A Photographic Life - 245: John R.J. Taylor

In episode 245 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the centenarian photographer, when the sitter takes control and learning photography not facts. Plus this week, photographer John R.J.Taylor 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?’ John R. J. Taylor was born in Scotland in 1958 and studied art and photography at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Scotland and photography at the Royal College of Art in London. His book Ideal Home was first published over thirty years ago in 1989 and quickly began to influence photographers and students as to what was a suitable subject for an image, opening up the possibilities of exploring the ordinary, everyday objects of life in a new way. Once a cult book, it is now considered a ‘modern classic’. Ideal Home is an almost forensic photographic record of his sister’s north London suburban house. Working his way methodically around the house, Taylor documented the rooms, table tops, ornaments, interiors of fridges, cupboards, garden – as many aspects of the domestic interior of the home as possible. Taylor has continued to work on numerous projects ever since and his images have been collected by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of London and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Texas, USA, exhibited throughout Europe and once in the USA. www.johnrjtaylorphotography.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 2023