In this special episode UNP Founder and Curator Grant Scott speaks with photographers Simon Roberts and Nina Emett about their project to establish an artist led collaborative space for photography on the South coast of England.

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Mentioned in this episode: 
POST is a new artist-led cultural space in Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, UK. It will include affordable artist studios and co-working spaces for lens-based artists, a community darkroom in collaboration, a daylight film & photography studio, a flexible exhibition and event space, workshop and masterclass programmes, residencies for lens-based artists, and a shared kitchen, collaboration hub and reference library. It aims to bring together artists, local residents, community groups, and public sector partners in ‘creative solutions labs’ to collectively explore addressing challenges like inequality, homelessness, the climate crisis and biodiversity loss in the city and beyond.

Simon Roberts
Robert’s was born in 1974 and is a visual artist based in Brighton, UK, recognised for his large-format, tableaux photographs exploring the socio-political fabric of Britain. His practice also encompasses video, text and installation, which together, interrogate notions of identity, belonging, and the complex relationship between history, place and culture. He has exhibited widely, and his photographs reside in major public and private collections, including the George Eastman House, Deutsche Börse Art Collection and Victoria & Albert Museum. In 2010 he was appointed the official British Election Artist by the House of Commons Works of Art Committee and in 2014 he represented Britain during the UK-Russia Year of Culture. Roberts has been commissioned to make several large-scale public artworks and recognised with numerous awards including an Honorary Fellowship to the Royal Photographic Society, the Vic Odden Award and grants from Arts Council England and the John Kobal Foundation. He is the author of several critically acclaimed monographs including Motherland (2007), We English (2009), Pierdom (2013) and Merrie Albion – Landscape Studies of a Small Island (2017), his work has also been profiled and published widely including in the New Yorker, Granta, National Geographic, ArtForum, Wallpaper, amongst others. Roberts holds a First Class BA Hons in Cultural Geography from The University of Sheffield and is a regular public speaker and visiting lecturer. Outside of his own professional practice he is involved with several not-for-profit organisations having formerly served as a trustee of Photoworks, an ambassador to FotoDocument and the head of the advisory board for the Ian Parry Photojournalism Award. He is also a co-founder of POST a new artist-led studio complex in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. www.simoncroberts.com

Nina Emett
Emett is founding Director of FotoDocument and a passionate believer in visual story-telling to engage people in powerful narratives, creating active global citizenship to effect positive change. She has commissioned and curated over 30 multi-media arts projects and exhibitions since 2012. She won a PEA (People Environment Achievement) Award for FotoDocument’s acclaimed One Planet City environmental project with Bioregional in 2015. Emett has worked as a photographer including for The Independent, Amnesty International, PwC, Brighton & Hove City Council and works on her own long-form documentary photo essays. She was Strategic Lead for Brighton & Hove City Council’s anti-racism strategy (2005-09) and Director of the Salusbury World Refugee Centre (1999–03). She holds an MSC in International Development, a Postgraduate Diploma in Photojournalism and a BA Hons in French. She is also a co-founder of POST a new artist-led studio complex in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. https://www.instagram.com/nina_emett/

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’s book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is now on sale.

© Grant Scott 2025