There is a lot spoken about photography, I will admit to adding to that noise. However, through conversation comes information and that information can point to bigger discussions. Those in turn can identify themes.

These themes are the foundations of photographic practice. The things that are truly important to photographers making work that has a reason to exist in addition to aesthetic pleasure. Not that I am criticising work made on that basis only, I just don’t often find it very interesting.

To be aware of or understand these themes may be of interest and use to those looking to evolve/develop their image making. They may prove challenging, perhaps too challenging for some. Those people could dismiss their importance. That’s okay. It will not stop me from stating that importance.

The themes are these. Empathy, communication, respect, collaboration and narrative. All of these need to take place if a photographer wishes to establish an ethical, respectful, respected and professional practice. Notice I have not used the word successful. You can be successful and ignore everything I have said, but for how long?

This is my fortieth year working with professional photography and during that time I have seen many burn bright and fade quickly. Some burn bright and fade eventually. I have seen bad practice and good practice. Bad practice always gets found out eventually. Those that have adopted good practice have inevitably enjoyed long careers. They have embraced and stayed true to the themes I have identified here. To many of you these are obvious ways of living life outside of photography. To others they may seem less obvious when related to photography. But photography is life and life is recorded through photography. The two cannot be separated.

We often talk of the importance of seeing the ‘big picture’ in life. It seems even more relevant and appropriate a term when related to photography. The ‘big picture’ is our engagement with the medium over years, decades. A relationship with image-making that will evolve over time. The initial excitement of making an image may remain but the sophistication of our understanding of the power of the photographic image should develop. In that ever-changing environment we need something to act as the spine for our images. Something that turns a collection of photographs into a body of work. The themes I have identified give us that.

The themes of photography are not film v digital, black and white v colour, Photoshop v Lightroom, or any other pointless debating point that fills social media space but in reality to quote Shakespeare is nothing more than “full of sound and fury but signifying nothing.” The true themes are those that exist outside of clicking a mouse, pushing a button or reading a light meter.

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.

Scott’s next book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing), is on pre-sale now.

© Grant Scott 2023