A Photographic Life - 256: Dennis Dimick

In episode 256 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on two photographers who have recently passed and the reality of being commissioned by a national publisher. Plus this week, photographer Dennis Dimick 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?’ Dennis Dimick is an American journalist, photographer, presenter and educator who grew up on a sheep and hay farm in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. He holds degrees in agriculture and agricultural journalism from Oregon State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and served for years as executive environment editor for National Geographic magazine, and was a picture editor for the National Geographic Society for more than 35 years until retiring in December 2015. He now serves in a consulting and reviewing role for the Society’s story-telling grant programme. Dimick is particularly interested in making visual the effects on earth of humanity's expanding presence in the emerging Anthropocene epoch and has written on these issues, and at National Geographic guided several major magazine projects on this idea. Between 2008-2012 he co-organised the Aspen Environment Forum and presented at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival and in 2015 moderated panels at the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China. Dimick has been a faculty member of the Missouri Photo Workshop for 23 years, and in 2013 received the Sprague Memorial Award from the National Press Photographers Association for outstanding service to photojournalism. His picture and environmental project editing has received many awards from Pictures of the Year International and the Society of Environmental Journalists, where he served on the board from 2016-2019. Dimick has served as a juror for the Heinz Foundation Awards, and the Pare Lorentz Award for the International Documentary Association and is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the International Center of Photography. http://dennis-dimick.squarespace.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