A Photographic Life - 260: John Haynes

In episode 260 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting on digital art, the AI debate and reasons why student degree shows exist. Plus this week, photographer John Haynes 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?’ John Haynes started taking photographs in 1963 after seeing Cartier-Bresson's book The Europeans. After working for two years with The Sunday Times, he decided to specialise in theatre photography. He was the in-house photographer for The Royal Court Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, and Michael Codron Ltd, from 1970-1994 , and between 1970 and 2006 photographed over 200 productions for The National Theatre. His most well-known images taken during his time were of the playwright Samuel Beckett. In 1986 Thames & Hudson published a book of Haynes theatre photography, called Taking the Stage: Twenty-One Years of the London Theatre, which was accompanied by an exhibition of his work at the National Theatre which later moved to the Colnaghi Gallery in New York, and then to The Moscow Arts Theatre. In 2003 Cambridge University Press published Haynes next book, Images of Beckett, with text by Samuel Beckett's biographer James Knowlson. https://johnhaynesphotography.net 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 2023