In this special episode, editor, writer and curator of photography Bill Shapiro, art director, creative director and lecturer Fiona Hayes and UNP founder and curator Grant Scott look back on 2025 and forward to 2026 whilst reflecting on photo exhibitions, books, social media, publishing and the expectations of the Twenty First Century photographer.

Mentioned in this episode:
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2012/10/23/christopher-anderson/
www.wefolk.com/artists/christopher-anderson/information
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/christopher-anderson-white-house-photos-maga-vanity-fair
www.stanleybarker.co.uk/products/cheryomushki
www.henryohead.com/twelve-acres
www.hotshoemagazine.com/products/issue-214-stephen-shore?srsltid=AfmBOooAL0X1cSyFYeZxCcGKcuyaWjAR-3HWoIFw0L0VGO80QB6lJRIO
https://gostbooks.com/products/frontier 
www.toddwebbarchive.com/publications/9-paris-a-love-story-1948-1952/
www.stanleybarker.co.uk/products/la-polaroids

Resistance | How Protest Shaped Britain & Photography Shaped Protest
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk6kg4cQpgI
Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark
https://ravenrow.org/exhibitions/peter-hujar-eyes-open-in-the-dark  
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34250044/
The Power and the Glory
www.newportstreetgallery.com/exhibition/the-power-and-the-glory/
Richard Avedon: In the American West
www.henricartierbresson.org/en/expositions/richard-avedon/
https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2026/richard-avedon-facing-west/
Photo London 2026 
https://photolondon.org

Bill Shapiro
Bill Shapiro served as the Editor-in-Chief of LIFE, the legendary photo magazine; LIFE’s relaunch in 2004 was the largest in Time Inc. history. Later, he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of LIFE.com, which won the 2011 National Magazine Award for digital photography. Shapiro is the author of several books, among them Gus & Me, a children’s book he co-wrote with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and, What We Keep, which looks at the objects in our life that hold the most emotional significance. A fine-art photography curator for New York galleries and a consultant to photographers, Shapiro is also a Contributing Editor to the Leica Conversations series. He has written about photography for the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, Vogue, and Esquire, among others. Every Friday — more or less — he posts about under-the-radar photographers on his Instagram feed, where he’s @billshapiro.

Fiona Hayes
Fiona Hayes is an art director, designer, consultant and lecturer with over 30 years’ experience in publishing, fashion and the art world. She has been a magazine art director ten times: on Punch, Company, Eve, the British and Russian editions of Cosmopolitan, House & Garden,GQ India (based in Mumbai), MyselfGermany (in Munich), and Russian Vogue (twice). Between 2013 and 2019, as Art Director of New Markets and Brand Development for Condé Nast International, based in London and Paris, she oversaw all the company’s launches – 14 magazines, including seven editions of Vogue. She still consults as Design Director at Large for Vogue Hong Kong. In 2002 she founded independent photography magazine DayFour, publishing it continuously until 2012. She is Co-Author and Art Director of The Fashion Yearbook, and creative director of books for South African media consultancy Legacy Creates. Outside the publishing world, she has been Art Director of contemporary art auction house Phillips de Pury in London and New York, and Consultant Art Director of Russian luxury retail group Mercury/TSUM. (Fiona would like to point out she is not Russian: she is proudly Irish and studied Visual Communication and History of Art and Design at NCAD Dublin.) She currently divides her time between design consultancy for commercial clients, and lecturing at Oxford Brookes University, the Condé Nast College of Fashion and Design, London, Nottingham Trent University, Ravensbourne University, and Leeds University. She lives in West London. @theartdictator

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), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). 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.

© Grant Scott 2025