I always used to keep a book in my pocket. A paperback that I would pull out whenever I was waiting for something to happen or someone or something to arrive. Reading was an essential part of passing time. That book could be anything but invariably a novel, a collection of short stories or a biography. Usually it was a thin volume so as not to ruin the shape of my jacket or coat. Those books were my travelling books. My companions when I was on my own. My friends.

My friends introduced me to different worlds, sophisticated language, unexpected narratives, multitudes of characters and most importantly unexpected knowledge. They shaped who I am, what I know and how I think. They gave me narrative based empathy.

They encouraged me to understand how people deal with different situations. They allowed me to walk a mile in a stranger’s shoes. To absorb information outside of my personal experience. Essential skills for any photographer to develop.

It has never been easier or cheaper to pick up a book from a local charity shop or thrift store and yet I am always amazed by how many photographers I meet who don’t read. Not can’t but don’t. For me reading is the foundation of being a photographer. Not reading about photography but about anything and everything that expands our internal knowledge base.

I know from experience that many photographers prefer visual communication to the written word. They find reading difficult or perhaps had an unpleasant time at school that turned them against what can be perceived as being formal education. I get that, but there are options. Education in adulthood does not have to recreate the formulaic approach or misery of your school days.

When we are waiting today we turn to our phones to fill time, not to a pocket paperback. We casually flick through our social media channels and doom scroll through Instagram. Engaging in a surface survey of force fed information based on algorithms that are pushing us into silos of knowledge. The result is a lack of challenge outside of our comfort zones and of empathetic depth.

The most common issue photographers who speak to me have when discussing the difference between making pictures and creating a cohesive body of work is that of storytelling. They can tell me about photographs they like, or genres or photographers but rarely a body of work. It is rare when questioned about storytelling that they engage in any form of reading. The most established form of storytelling we have. I usually then ask if they listen to audiobooks or podcasts, and am greeted with a similar negative response.

This is not an anti-phone diatribe. I recognize it’s positive and negative aspects but to understand a process you have to engage with it. If you are not reading or at least listening to audio books how can you understand narrative storytelling? If you don’t fill your waiting time profitably how can you complain that you are creatively stuck? Simple questions that can be answered simply with a positive outcome. Carry a book, read books, enjoy books and become a better photographer! You might even enjoy your time waiting a little more than you may think.

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 foto8 magazine, 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: Under and Post Graduate 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 book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is now on sale.

© Grant Scott 2025