PODCAST: A Photographic Life, Episode 111: Plus Photographer Mandy Barker

In episode 111 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed considering the documentation of political upheaval, importance of ethics and morals in a photographic practice and the need for empathy as a photographer.

Plus this week photographer Mandy Barker takes on the challenge of supplying Grant with an audio file no longer than 5 minutes in length in which she answer’s the question ‘What Does Photography Mean to You?’

Mandy Barker is an award-winning photographer whose work involving marine plastic debris over the past 10 years has received global recognition. Working with scientists she aims to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. Her work has been published in the National Geographic Magazine, TIME Magazine, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The New Scientist, amongst others and used to illustrate key scientific research papers. Barker was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet Award SPACE 2017, and nominated for the Magnum Foundation Fund and Deutsche Borse Foundation Photography Prize 2020. In 2012 she was awarded The Royal Photographic Society’s Environmental Bursary and in 2018 she was a recipient of the 2018 National Geographic Society Grant for Research and Exploration. Her first book Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly Known Animals was selected as one of the Ten Best Photography Books of 2017, by the Smithsonian and  her book Altered Ocean was chosen by The Royal Photographic Society as one of their Top 10 Photobooks of 2019. Also, in 2019 Barker collaborated with Stanford University with the launch of the virtual reality experience, Ripple: the unintended life of plastics in the sea. Her latest body of work LUNASEA created as part of the Henderson Island Plastic Pollution Expedition has just been released on her website. Barker is a member of the Union of Concerned Photographers (UCP), which is dedicated to using the power of imagery to underline the urgency of environmental concerns. www.mandy-barker.com

If you have enjoyed this podcast why not check out our A Photographic Life Podcast Plus. Created as a learning resource that places the power of learning into the hands of the learner. To suggest where you can go, what you can read, who you can discover and what you can question to further your own knowledge, experience and enjoyment of photography. It will be inspiring, informative and enjoyable! You can find out here: www.patreon.com/aphotographiclifepodcast

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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, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015). His book New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019.