A Photographic Life - 308: Plus Michael Robinson Chavez

In episode 307 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on photography and the 1990s, keeping ethemera that may or may not be important and the importance of making mistakes to creative success. Plus this week, photographer Michael Robinson Chávez 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?’ Michael Robinson Chávez, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, who became seduced by photography after a friend gave him a camera to take on a trip to Peru. A native Californian who is half-Peruvian, Robinson Chávez is now based in the Washington DC region. He worked for the The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and Associated Press before working as a staff photographer for fifteen years at The Washington Post. He has covered assignments in over 75 countries including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the collapse of Venezuela, violence in Mexico, California's historic drought, the Egyptian revolution, gold mining in Peru, climate change in Siberia, life in Brazil's favelas, and the US led invasion and occupation of Iraq. Robinson Chávez was named an iWitness Fellow, is a frequent lecturer and has taught photographic workshops with the Leica Akademie and Foundry among others, in over twenty countries. https://chavezphoto.com 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