My work seeks to address the way photography has been deployed to reinforce notions of gender in western society. Writers such as John Berger, Laura Mulvey and Richard Dyer have correlated binary concepts of male/female with activity and passivity and looking and being looked at. Through personal practice, an attempt is made to eschew this active/passive binary when photographing the male body. This has involved a variety of picture-making strategies that have been influenced and informed by constructionist conceptualizations of the body such as Bakhtin's 'carnivalesque' and Judith Butler's notion of gender becoming an 'activity', together with Michel Foucault's concept of discourse, which has been central to the conceptualisation of the 'queer theory' research paradigm. The photographic methods used in my practice are performative and engage with processes such as stillness, or repetitious bodily movement, in order to reveal an unconscious or unprepossessed state to the camera, with the aim of transcending patriarchal codes and 'becoming' something alternative, something 'queer'. In addressing the process of naturalization we might consider Judith Butler's suggestion:
My work seeks to address the way photography has been deployed to reinforce notions of gender in western society. Writers such as John Berger, Laura Mulvey and Richard Dyer have correlated binary concepts of male/female with activity and passivity and looking and being looked at. Through personal practice, an attempt is made to eschew this active/passive binary when photographing the male body. This has involved a variety of picture-making strategies that have been influenced and informed by constructionist conceptualizations of the body such as Bakhtin's 'carnivalesque' and Judith Butler's notion of gender becoming an 'activity', together with Michel Foucault's concept of discourse, which has been central to the conceptualisation of the 'queer theory' research paradigm. The photographic methods used in my practice are performative and engage with processes such as stillness, or repetitious bodily movement, in order to reveal an unconscious or unprepossessed state to the camera, with the aim of transcending patriarchal codes and 'becoming' something alternative, something 'queer'. In addressing the process of naturalization we might consider Judith Butler's suggestion:
If gender is something that one becomes-but can never be-then gender is itself a kind of becoming or activity, and that gender ought not to be conceived as a noun or a substantial thing or a static cultural marker, but rather as an incessant and repeated action of some sort. (Judith Butler - Gender Trouble)
1999-2015 - Senior Lecturer in Photography at University of Wales Trinity St David's Swansea
Qualifications - 2011 - M Phil, Swansea Metropolitan University, Wales
Solo exhibitions
2019 - What is lost...what has been Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock
2019 - till death us do part Athens Photo Festival
2018 - Matrimonial Ties, Soho Photo Gallery New York
2017 - Till death us do part, Outono Fotográfico festival in Ourense, Galizia, Spain
2017 - Till death us do part - Edifício do Castelo Museum, Braga Portugal
2005 - Bed Sheet Dreams, The Room, London
1999 - A Different Point of View, MAC, Birmingham
1996 - Dark Secrets.......Mortal Thoughts, Newport Museum & Art Gallery, Newport Gwent
1995 - Hunks & Heroes, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
Group exhibitions
2017 The Art of Living– ACCI Gallery, Berkely California
2017 KL Photo Awards– whitebox Gallery, Publika Art Space, Kuala Lumpar
2017 Home Sweet Home– Oriel Theatre Clwyd, Mold.
2016 Recipient of the Hasselblad Masters Award – publication & exhibition Cologne Germany
2015 Home Sweet Home - Ffotogallery Diffusion International Festival of Photography Cardiff
2015 Pride Exhibition – FOAM Museum of Photography Amsterdam
2015 Graphics Interchange Format: 25 Years of Focal Point Gallery –
Focal Point Southend
2014 Uncertain States – Brighton Photo Biennial
2014 Photo Review Awards - Philadelphia
2014 Pride Photo Awards exhibition - Amsterdam
2014 CNN Photoblog – Marital Ties
2014 Voies Off Festival, Arles, France
2013 - From Common Differences - Ffotogallery Diffusion International Festival of Photography, Cardiff
2008 - Unreliable Truths, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
2006-8 - Sitting Room, International Touring exhibition
1998 - 1999 - Barbarella - Dolls & Doll Imagery -Touring Exhibition - Kent Council
1997 - Barbie & Friends - Brighton Museum
Publications
2015 Looking for America - Ffotogallery Diffusion International Festival of Photography
2013 From Common Differences – Ffotogallery Diffusion International Festival of Photography
2008 - Unreliable Truths – exhibition catalogue – Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea
2007 - Sitting Room - exhibition catalogue
2006 - Re-imaging Wales - Seren
2005 - Bed Sheet Dreams - exhibition brochure - Swansea Institute
2004 - Male Bodies - a photographic history of the nude - Emmanuel Cooper - Prestel
2003 - Art Tomorrow - Edward Lucie Smith - Terrail publishing
1998 - Barbarella Dolls and Doll imagery - exhibition catalogue - Kent Council
1996 - Dark Secrets, Mortal Thoughts - exhibition brochure - Newport Museum
1995 - Fully Exposed - .(2nd ed) Emmanuel Cooper - Routledge
1995 - Hunks & Heroes - exhibition brochure - Grey Suit Publications