Bio
15 October 2016
Primary practice is medium and large format film based photography and occasional video. The results are presented under a collective title
of ‘Citizen Reality’ (.com)
 
Key themes surround how the ever expanding reach of technology has co-opted visual imagery and the written word to exponentially change the perception of reality and as a consequence, our belief systems. The pictures experiment with provenance, title, photographic process and edit to create ambiguous tableau narratives with nebulous authenticity and truth.  
 
There’s no hierarchy or boundary of subject matter – but an aimless, calculated pursuit of satisfaction and control. The visual syntax reflects a compulsive and intuitive response to a photographic addiction, confronted with an overdose quantity of material to sample.
 
The objective is to seduce & subvert the audience with visual overload, to mimic the on demand visual cocoon we live in – and its cinematic, projected reality. Citizen Reality pictures are ‘real’ but vicarious, hyper real, serendipitous or planned, appropriated or resurrected – random, mimetic and algorithmic.
 
The pursuit metabolises the Blitzkrieg of tropes that signal our time: identity, impunity, self promotion, satisfaction, aesthetic, exoteric, chaos, moral pluralism, cultural tribalism and misrepresentation – like [Kissinger’s] ‘constructive ambiguity’ gone mad: a saturated panoply of hubris, ‘Doublethink’ and denial.
 
Note: The combination of processes involved in the ‘Telescreen’ picture portfolios, i.e. data compression and web / screen presentation can create stroboscopic anomalies that do not appear in the paper prints of the same photographs.
 

Education

Master’s Degree Fine Art 2013, Chelsea College of Art, Camberwell College of Art  

Shows:

‘Daily, Weekly’, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Australia, February 2012

‘A Machine for Living in’, Hannah Barry Gallery, London, May 2012

‘New Community Design’, Tokyo‘Wondersite’, Tokyo, Japan,April 2012

‘Wondersite’, Japanese Embassy, London, May / June 2012

‘Bend Over Shirley’, Beaconsfield Contemporary Art, London, July 2012

Chelsea Salon, South London Gallery, London, October 2012

Chelsea Salon, Chelsea College of Art & Design – The Bakehouse, November 2012

‘Perfect Patio’, Space Station 65 – London, May 2013

MA Degree Show, Chelsea College of Art & Design, London, September 2013

‘Morphol Scream’, Piccadilly Place, Manchester, March 2014

‘Fake Phoney Reality’ – (solo show) in the ‘Balfron Season’ @ 67 Balfron Tower,London, September 2014

Summer Arts Prize shortlist 2015, Lacey Contemporary Gallery  – Holland Park London

‘ENDS’, Group show, Hundred Years Gallery, London, July 2016

Summer Arts Prize shortlist 2016, Lacey Contemporary Gallery  – Holland Park London

«2016 days of awesome photo books», LhGWR gallery, The Hague, The Netherlands

It’s all about the image; What you see is what you see – 2021, solo show, Blackshed Gallery, Robertsbridge, East Sussex

Nobody can hide, but everything is under control – 2021, solo show –  Trinity 7, Hastings, East Sussex 

Athens Photo Festival – 2022, shortlisted

Group show / IMPACT 12 Printmaking Conference at The Centre for Print Research, University of the West of England, Bristol in September ’22

‘Weather fair, visibility good’. Solo Show – Coastal Currents Arts Festival, Hastings, September ’23

Art Book Fairs & photo’zine collections

Encontros da Imagem – International Photography Festival – Soap and Rocket photo’books shortlisted, Sep / Nov 16

Tijuana Porto 12ª Feira de Arte Impressa – Soap and Rocket photo’books selected, Oct ’16

Tijuana collection, São Paulo – selected September 2016

Self Publish – Be Happy, collection, selected September 2016

Publications:

Soap and Rocket episodes 01 to 05 / ISSN 2399 3065 

Links:

FakePhoneyReality

Authenticity & The Land (scroll down)

The Beautiful Game

Curating the Contemporary: The Digital Obsession – The Emperor’s New Clothes revisited

Residencies:

Queensland College of Art, Griffin University, Queensland, Australia February 2102

Tokyo ‘Wondersite’, Japan, March 2012

Flat Time House, Camberwell, London, June 2012