In a recent episode of the excellent The Rest is Entertainment podcast (essential listening for anyone interested in the creative industries today), one of the hosts, Marina Hyde, spoke of a new title for a journalist at The New York Times. Gilbert Cruz, one of the editors in the book section, has taken on the new role of ‘Canon Editor’. The idea is that he will build a team dedicated to inviting experts and readers alike, to help him declare the definitive works in a given discipline. In short, he will make lots of ‘best of lists’.

Gilbert created The New York Times, 100 Best Books of the 21st Century ,and is now going to curate many more such lists, across the cultural landscape. The inclusion on such lists is a commercial windfall, for all of those involved. Forgotten books, both old and new, get rediscovered and discovered and their sales increase. This makes publishers and writers happy. The same commercial truth is the same for any restaurant, pub, hotel, beach, artist or music based list. They are the quick-fix introduction to the forgotten and undiscovered. Easy access to well-considered culture.

I ,of course, have no issue with this. Any promotion of cultural artefacts is good. That is if, the lists retain editorial integrity and are created by well-informed, independent thinking experts. I would hope that this would be the case with The New York Times, although their recent best songwriters list, could suggest that this is not a given.

When I was the editor of Professional Photographer magazine, I produced a number of these lists. One was Photography’s Bad Boys, another was 100 Best Professsional Photographers and I also compiled a similar list, based on women photographers. They were created to sell copies through cheap editorial. The lists were based on my opinions and no one elses. Not very democratic I admit, in fact they suggest an editorial policy similar to that of a totalitarian state. However, they worked well and sales increased, but most importantly, in my mind, they also introduced people to photographers they may not have been aware of. Not just the expected and obvious, but those whose work has gone out of fashion or which was not easily available online.

To create such a list requires a broad knowledge of both the historical and contemporary environments in which photography sits. It also requires an ability to be objective about photographers and their work. I have always included photographers I do not like or understand in any list I have compiled. It has never been a case of including subjective favourites. And that is why such lists can be so important. They should be educational and inspirational, but unbiased. However, whereas I have discovered books, artists and albums I was not previously aware of, the photographer lists I have seen have been inevitable and lazy. Avedon, Penn and Brandt, Helmut Newton, Bresson and Liebowitz are the Sgt. Pepper’s, Highway 61, Exile on Main Street and Dark Side of the Moon of photography. Important, but obvious. Just like Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath, War and Peace and Jane Eyre; you need to know they exist, but as time passes, new work that needs to be exalted, is being made.

This makes me think that perhaps, we need a Canon Editor of Photography. I think we do and I’m willing to take on the challenge! So, expect to see some lists appearing on the UNP over the coming weeks. Not your average list, but some lists with a twist. That’s the kind of list I like.

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: 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 2026