A Photographic Life - 290: Plus Roo Lewis

In episode 290 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on reading the conflict image and its continuing power to inform.

Plus this week, photographer Roo Lewis 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?’

Roo Lewis is a photographer based in Hackney, North London and his portraiture has been commissioned included in magazines such as Vogue, The Guardian, The Times amongst others. In addition to his editorial work he also works for international brands such as Toast, Island Records, VW, Sony, Waitrose, and American Express. His long-term personal projects are developed by building trust with communities and conveying his subjects with empathy, emotion and integrity through an analogue approach. This has led to two books. The first Forest: Walking Among Trees explores the historical context and modern-day applications of some of the world's most fascinating and iconic trees. Over a period of two years Lewis photographed the Welsh town of Port Talbot which, according to actor Michael Sheen, has an ‘extremely high number of UFO sightings’. However, the resulting book published in 2023, Lewis's second, Port Talbot UFO Investigation Club is not a study of UFO sightings but instead uses the phenomena as a starting point to explore the people, landscape and folklore of the town. https://roolewis.com

Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Under Graduate and Post-Graduate Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of At Home With the Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006), 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 2020). 

His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com and he is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts.

© Grant Scott 2023