A Photographic Life - 303: Plus Mark Chapman

In episode 303 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on confusion between post-production and AI, professionalism and creativity and accepting that old labels are no longer relevant. Plus this week, photographer Mark Chapman 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?’ Mark Chapman is an award-winning filmmaker and artist from North East, England whose moving-image work has been screened internationally across narrative, documentary and experimental contexts. Chapman’s hybrid documentary short CAMREX had its world premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival and has been screened internationally and nominated for over 30 international awards. His short TRANS, was also screened around the world. He was one of the 17 filmmakers selected for the BFI NETWORK@LFF 2017, which sought to identify original new voices “taking risks and breaking new ground in narrative and form.” Chapman is an alumnus of the industry development programme Berlinale Talents at Berlin Film Festival. His photographic work has appeared in numerous group gallery shows and magazines such as ID and Aesthetica. He is currently developing his debut drama feature TRUANT. This project was one of 12 European projects selected for the UK-Italy development programme Feature Expanded, where he was mentored by Oscar-nominated & Cannes-prize winning producer Yorgos Tsourgiannis. Chapman was recently selected for the BAFTA Connect scheme and is an associate member of Directors UK. He is a Lecturer in Film & TV Production at the University of Greenwich, and has a PhD in film practice. www.mark-chapman.co.uk 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 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 Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is now on pre-sale. © Grant Scott 2024