Embracing Imperfection for Engagement

In this special extended episode UNP founder and curator Grant Scott engages in a conversation with UK based photographer, Harry Borden about the importance his YouTube channel and how to use the platform to remain relevant and engaged with the medium. Harry Borden was born in New York and brought up on a farm in Devon in the South West of England. He studied photography at Plymouth College of Art and Design. Borden moved to London after graduation, where he worked as an assistant for the photographer Lester Bookbinder. He received his first commission from The Observer in 1994 and continued to work for the title until the present day photographing celebrities, musicians, creatives and politicians. Examples of Borden's work are held in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, London and National Portrait Gallery, Australia and appeared regularly in Harpers & Queen, Vogue and The New Yorker. In June 2005, he had his first solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London titled Harry Borden: On Business which included 30 portraits of leading business leaders. In 2017 his book Survivor, A Portrait of the Survivors of the Holocaust was published having been shortlisted for the European Publishers Award for Photography in 2014. It was later judged among the 10 best photography books of 2018 by the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation. In 2021 his second book Single Dad was published by Hoxton Mini Press. He continues to work on a commissioned basis and on personal work, whilst also lecturing on the MA Professional Photography at Oxford Brookes University. Borden's YouTube channel which contains films made with his son Fred can be found at www.youtube.com/@fredandharryborden his photography at www.harryborden.com 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), 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 continues to work as a photographer, writer and filmmaker and is the Subject Coordinator for both undergraduate and post graduate study of photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England. Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is now on sale. © Grant Scott 2025