A Photographic Life - 233: Plus Math Roberts

In episode 233 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on the importance of research to photographers, asking questions you want answers for and getting ready for winter. Plus this week, photographer Math Roberts takes on the challenge of supplying Grant with an audio file no longer than 5 minutes in length in which he answer’s the question ‘What Does Photography Mean to You?’ *Grant is aware that The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was written by Douglas Adams and not Terry Pratchett, but a Covid brain fog affected his ability to be correct in this case. The correct answer of course is 42. Math Roberts is a Welsh photographer based in Swansea, South Wales who primarily uses the genre of street photography to approach his projects, producing work through intuition rather than preconceived concepts. He studied art and design during his school and college years, later teaching himself photography after buying a cheap digital camera from the boot of a car outside his local pub. Since then, Roberts has been awarded several commissions in different areas such as the theatre, music, architecture, corporate events, and festivals. He is currently working towards a book for his long-term project, Pretty Shitty City, a play on words originally by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, and borrowed from the cult classic movie Twin Town, which documents working class people and spaces within the city of Swansea and surrounding areas. A selection of twenty-five images from the project were exhibited at the Volcano Theatre on Swansea High Street in September 2020. Http://mathroberts.com Dr. 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, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and 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). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts. © Grant Scott 2022