Conohar Scott
Photographic artist | photographer | critic | writer | researcher
info@conohar.com · ORCID 0000-0002-2946-9828
Biography
Conohar Scott is a photographer, artist, writer and educator born in Belfast and now based in Sogn, Vestland, Norway. His work brings together environmental photography, collaborative artistic practice, commercial commissions, higher education teaching, academic research and journalism. Through his environmental photography practice, Scott explores landscapes shaped by industrial pollution, resource extraction and ecological change. Working under the name Environmental Resistance, he collaborates with NGOs, citizens’ groups, environmental activists and researchers to document contested places, raise public awareness and support campaigns for environmental justice. These collaborations connect photographic research with local knowledge and the experiences of communities affected by environmental harm.
Alongside his artistic work, Scott maintains a commercial photography practice serving editorial, cultural and business clients. His approach draws on documentary observation, visual storytelling and an interest in people, places and working lives. Scott has extensive experience teaching photography in higher education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His work includes programme leadership, curriculum development, research supervision and support for students developing their own photographic voices. He has also championed climate justice within higher education, connecting teaching and research with wider public engagement.
He is the author of Photography and Environmental Activism (Routledge, 2022), which examines photography’s role in challenging industrial pollution. His academic writing addresses photographic practice, environmental politics and the relationships between art, evidence and activism. As a journalist and critic, he contributes essays, features and photobook reviews to publications including Source and 1000 Words, bringing critical attention to contemporary photography, visual culture and the environmental questions shaping our shared world.
Selected Achievements and Expertise
• Photographer, artist and researcher working across commercial commissions, artistic practice and environmental activism.
• Published author of Photography and Environmental Activism (Routledge, 2022).
• Commercial photography experience, translating client briefs into distinctive imagery through creative direction, photographic production and image editing.
• Professional artistic practice encompassing photography, exhibitions, publications and collaborative projects.
• Ten years’ experience championing climate justice within UK higher education, connecting photographic practice with environmental advocacy.
• Strong record of public engagement through exhibitions, lectures, workshops and community-based projects.
• Track record of securing and managing collaborative projects with community, cultural and third-sector partners.
• REF2021 experience, contributing internationally recognised research outputs and impact activity.
• Extensive experience designing and delivering practice-based photography curricula at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
• PGT Programme Director experience, alongside ongoing postgraduate taught and postgraduate research supervision.
• Extensive experience supporting dyslexic and neurodivergent students.
• Peer reviewer for Photographies journal. Writer for art periodicals such as Source.
Current artistic project
La Vetta e L’Abisso (The Summit and the Abyss), 2018–present. Interdisciplinary artist’s book structured as a three-act play, combining a 20,000-word prose drama, 35 analogue large-format photographs of Carrara’s marble quarries and speculative architectural drawings by Claire Fear. The project examines marble extractivism through environmental history, labour politics, literature and architecture and is now in production as a 128-page publication.
Recent art exhibitions/events
2021 — Gaia Artist in Residence, The Collection Museum, Lincoln.
2021 — One Step Greener, COP26 group exhibition, University of Lincoln Project Space.
2020 — Exhibiting artist, Transitions, Rotterdam Photo Festival.
2019 — Winner, Landscape Category, Europa European PhotoAwards, judged by the Martin Parr Foundation.
Artistic features
2023 — ‘La Vetta e L’Abisso: Carrara’, visual essay, Photographies 16.3. DOI.
2021 — Featured artist in Abyss, Dark Mountain, issue 20. View.
2019 — With A. Cunningham, ‘Summit and Abyss’, The Dark Mountain Project, online edition, 7 February. View.
Selected art press
Regular feature writer and photobook reviewer for Source Photographic Review, 2023-present.
Selected articles include:
2024 — ‘The Many Deaths of Empedocles’, Source. View.
Selected — ‘Gideon Mendel: Fire/Flood’, 1000 Words. View.
Selected — ‘Climate Activism’s Death Valley Daze’, Reading the Pictures. View.
Critical publications
2022 — Monograph: Photography and Environmental Activism: Visualising the Struggle Against Industrial Pollution, Routledge, UK. Publisher page.
2019 — ‘The eco-anarchist potential of environmental photography: Richard Misrach’s and Kate Orff’s Petrochemical America’, in J. Tormey and M. Durden (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Photography Theory, Routledge. Publisher page.
2017 — ‘Photographing Mining Pollution in Gold Rush California’, Photographies 10.2. DOI.
2016 — ‘Environmental Resistance: Art for Change: Collaborative Working Practices’, in S. Read and M. Simmons (eds.), Photographers and Research: The Role of Research in Contemporary Photographic Practice, Focal Press. Publisher page.
Small grants awarded
2021 — Gaia Artist in Residency, The Collection Museum, Lincoln - GBP 3,000.
2018 — University of Lincoln Research Resources Allocation Fund; translation of Italian interviews for research into mining pollution in Sardinia - GBP 1,500.
2016 — University of Lincoln Research Investment Fund; project lead, Investigating the Environmental and Social Implications of Mining Pollution in Sardinia - GBP 15,000.
2014 — Leverhulme Artist in Residence, Centre for Environment and Marine Science, University of Hull - GBP 14,475.
Selected conference presentations
2025 — Keynote, ‘Art, Beauty, and Visualizing Social Change: The Politics and Aesthetics of Environmental Photography’, Amerika-Institut, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich.
2023 — Keynote, ‘Adopting an Attitude or Taking a Position: Making Ontological Claims for Photography and Environmental Activism’, Photographic History Research Centre, De Montfort University.
2023 — Keynote, ‘John A. Todd: Photographing Mining Pollution in Gold Rush California’, with Michelle Bogre, California Historical Society. Watch.
2023 — Visiting lecture, ‘Photography and Environmental Activism’, Westminster Photography Forum, University of Westminster.
2023 — Visiting lecture, ‘Photography and Environmental Activism’, Edinburgh Napier University Photography Lecture Series.
2021 — Keynote, PHOTAGE21, The Heritage College, Kolkata, India.
2021 — Paper, ‘The potential of Photography and Augmented Reality to engage in ecological justice’, 8th EUGEO Congress on the Geography of Europe, Prague.
2019 — Keynote, Inhuman Landscapes, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Chambéry, France.
2015 — Devised and hosted Network Ecologies: Exploring Relations Between Environmental Art, Environmental Science and Environmental Activism, University of Hull, Scarborough. Archive.
Employment history
2026-present — Freelance Commercial, Editorial and Documentary Photographer, Norway. Commissioned and self-directed photography for editorial, cultural and commercial contexts.
2023-present — Oxford Brookes University, Associate Lecturer in Photography, part-time. Lecturer on the online MA Professional Photography degree.
2024-25 — De Montfort University, Associate Lecturer in Art History, Photojournalism and Photography.
2015-23 — University of Lincoln, Senior Lecturer in Photography, School of Design. Taught across the BA Photography degree, directed the MA Photography programme, supervised postgraduate research, reviewed ethics applications and co-founded the Lincoln Centre for Ecological Justice.
2014-15 — Leverhulme Artist in Residence, Centre for Environment and Marine Science, University of Hull, Scarborough.
2013-14 — Loughborough University, Customer Service Assistant, University Library.
2010-15 — Loughborough University, PhD researcher with a university scholarship.
2008-10 — Mid Cheshire College, Northwich, 0.5 BTEC Photography Lecturer.
2008-10 — S2 Studios (now AMBA Creative Photography), 0.5 Product Photographer.
Qualifications
2010-15 — PhD by Practice, School of Arts, Loughborough University. Thesis: The Photographer as Environmental Activist: Politics, Ethics and Beauty in the Struggle for Environmental Remediation (2015). Doctoral scholarship.
2006-07 — PGCE, Higher, Further and Adult Education, University of Bolton.
2004-05 — OCN Level 3 Certificate in Mentoring.
2000-03 — Master of Design, Edinburgh College of Art.
1994-99 — MA (Hons), English Literature, University of Glasgow.