Anna Fox

Overview

The Hyman Collection is the most significant collection in the world of the work of Anna Fox. The collection includes major series in their entirety, editioned works, and unique exhibition sets.

In 1986 Anna Fox began a career as a documentary photographer chronicling new town life in Basingstoke 86/87 (locally known as 'Doughnut City') and going on in 1988 to publish the monograph Work Stations, a study of London Office life in Thatcher's Britain. Using images and texts, parodying the style of magazine journalism, these two bodies of work posited a satirical view of contemporary Southern England. These works were exhibited extensively as far a field as Brazil and Estonia and established Fox's name as a significant figure within the field of new colour documentary. Inclusion of her work in Through the Looking Glass, at the Barbican Art Gallery in 1989 curated by David Mellor and Ian Jeffrey confirmed this position.

In later projects, made in the 1990's In Pursuit (1990), The Village (1991-1992 Cross Channel Photographic Mission commission), Friendly Fire (1992) and Zwarte Piet (the Netherlands 1994-1999) Fox created a new direction inventing innovative approaches and raising questions regarding the problems of documentary practice. In the essay Bal Masqué Dutch theorist Mieke Bal talks about how the images do more than document: that they work through and with the subject opening up new space for debate and thought.

'Anna Fox's photographs, humorous and tender, ironic and identifying, are powerful in the way they offer art as a means to face this need (the need to identify the issue) head on. her images avoid the two most predictable attitudes a project like this might succumb to: the endorsement of reiteration and the moralism of indictment'.

These projects were exhibited in a number of solo exhibitions including The Photographers Gallery, London and The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago as well as in significant group shows such as Documentary Dilemmas (British Council- world touring) and Warworks, Victoria & Albert Museum, Nederlands Foto Insitute, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography.

By early 2000 Fox produced two autobiographical works: Cockroach Diary and My Mother's Cupboards and My Father's Words which completely turned on its head the notion of the documentary photographer as outsider, these new works investigated the personal and difficult world of domestic households and relationships bringing together a mix of image and text in two miniature book works. Later in 2003 the series Made in Europe questioned further the power relation between subject and photographer by handing over power to the subject the work portrayed a vision of contemporary Europe through the eyes and voices of teenagers.

The projects Country Girls (1996-2001) and Pictures of Linda (1983-ongoing) introduced a collaborative element to Fox's practice: by working in partnership with the singer/songwriters Alison Goldfrapp and Linda Lunus the relationship between subject and photographer was being explored from a new perspective. The exhibition Cockroach Diary and other Stories, Impressions Gallery 2008, explored installation as an integral part of Fox's practice and how through this installation the viewer could be engaged in a different way than in a conventional photographic exhibition space.

Fox's solo shows have been seen at The Photographer's Gallery, London, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago amongst others and her work has been included in numerous international group shows including - From Tarzan to Rambo at Tate Modern; Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant Garde at Tate Liverpool and How We Are: Photographing Britain at Tate Britain. Numerous monographs of her work are in print and a major monograph Anna Fox Photographs 1983 - 2007 was published by Photoworks in 2007 edited by Val Williams. Anna Fox was shortlisted for the 2010 Deutsche Borse Photography Prize and the 2012 Pilar Citoler Prize. Her latest project BLINK is published by Central St Martins.

Since joining the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in 2004 Professor Fox has been actively involved in promoting and developing the research activities of the Photography department. Investment has been made in the research cluster The BookRoom, and the research project Fast Forward; Women in Photography for which Fox won a major International Networks Award from the Leverhulme Trust

Fox has also supported other significant international research initiatives and curriculum development with partners such as the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad where she successfully gained two PMI2 awards, a major UKIERI award for collaborative MFA Photography course delivery and student exchanges in India as well as further UKIERI awards for research collaboration between UCA, NID and International Center for Photography (ICP), NY. She is the co editor and writer of Langford's Basic Photography and Behind the Image (both Taylor Francis).

Biography

PROFESSOR ANNA FOX
Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society

Born 1961, Alton, England

EDUCATION
BA(Hons) Audio Visual Studies West Surrey College of Art & Design (now University for the Creative Arts) 1986.

EXHIBITIONS
1986
John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
Southill Park Gallery, Bracknell

1988
Camerawork, London

1989
Espace St Cyprien, Toulouse.
Eigen + Art, Leipzig

1990
Photographers Gallery, London

1991
Les Rencontres Photographiques en Bretagne, Lorient.

1992
Primavera, Barcelona.
Tarazona Festival of Photography
ARPA, Bordeaux

1993
Galeria Spectrum, Zaragoza.
Worthing Museum and Art Gallery
The Edge Gallery, London.

1994
Braga Festival of Photography.
Catalogue, 8 Encontros da Imagen. No ISBN (Deposito Legal No 77808)
Vigo Festival of Photography
Catalogue, VI Fotobienal - Vigo 94. ISBN: 84-87882-07-2

1995
Galeria Spectrum, Zaragoza.
The British Council Gallery, Koln
Catalogue, Soundings Cross Channel Photography Mission. ISBN:0-9517427-5-2.

1996
The Shoreditch Foto Biennale.
Caisse des Depots et Consignations, Bordeaux.
Caisse des Depots et Consignations, Paris
Catalogue, Photographie d'une Collection. ISBN: 2-85025-573-4.

1997
Studio Marangoni, Florence.
Galerie Le Lieu, Lorient.
Nancy Biennale.

1998
Image/Imatge, Orthez.

1999
Le Lycée Colbert, Lorient
Rencontres de la Photographie Lorient
Catalogue: 13e Rencontres Photographiques

2000
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago

2001
Printemps de Septembre Toulouse.
Centre de Photographie, Lectoure
Imagique, Langon

2003
London Stories, LCP Gallery, London.

2004
Encontras da Imagen, Braga Festival of Photography, Portugal.

2007
The National Review of Live Arts, Tramway Glasgow.

2008
Cockroach Diaries and Other Stories, Impressions Gallery, Bradford, Winchester Gallery.

2009
Face Up, with Sunil Gupta, Tasveer Arts, Bangalore, Indian Centre for Contemporary Art, Mumbai , The Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, Kolkata.
Cockroach Diaries and Other Stories, Ffotogallery, Cardiff

2010
Face Up, Verdhera, New Delhi
Cockroach Diaries and Other Stories, Galeria Sztuki WspóBunkier Sztuki, Krakow
Zwarte Piet at Experience Pommery # 8, Rheims, France
Face Up, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

2011
Cockroach Diaries and Other Stories, Bonington Gallery, University of Nottingham
Resort, Pallant House Museum and Gallery, Chichester
Resort, James Hyman Gallery, London

2012
Resort, St Albans Museum

2013
Pictures of Linda Lunus, Association of Lithuanian Photographers, Nida

2014
Loisirs, Photoaumnales, Beauvais
Back to the Village, Photoaumnales, Beauvais

2015
Spitting, collaboration with Andrew Bruce, James Hyman Gallery, London

2017
Blink, The Letharby Gallery, London UK
Resort 2, Lishui Photography Festival, Lishui and Light Work Gallery, Hangzhou

2018
Another Way of Telling, with Karen Knorr, at Shanghai Center of Photography touring to Three Shadows Beijing and Xiamen and Liangzhou Festival of Photography.

2019
Another Way of Telling, with Karen Knorr at OCAT Xi'an
Country Girls at Chennai Biennale

2020
Revisions, 5A1 Art Space, Shenzhen

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1986
Dream Homes, Camerawork London

1987
The Museum of London

1989
Through The Looking Glass, Barbican Art Gallery, London

1990
Triennale de la Photographie, Charloi

1991
The Fourth Wall, Amsterdam
The Mappin Gallery, Sheffield
The Untitled Gallery, Sheffield

1992
Saaremna Festival, Estonia .
Illegard Gallery, Tartu.
Photographers Gallery, Vilnius.
Mai de la Photo, Rheims.

1993
Documentary Dilemmas, Sao Paolo .
Uber die Grossen Stadte, NBGK, Academy of Arts, Berlin.
Royal Photographic Society, Bath
Deutsche Leasing Awards, Frankfurt.

1994
Documentary Dilemmas, Dublin Gallery of Photography,
Florence, Padua, Chechoslovakia.
Catalogue, DD, Aspects of British Documentary Photography 1983-1993. ISBN: 0 86355 232 3
Positive View, The Saatchi Gallery, London
Catalogue, Positive View. No ISBN. Published by Vogue.
Warworks, Rotterdam Biennale
Catalogue, Warworks, Women, Photography and the Iconography of War. ISBN:1-85381-591-8.
Deutsche Leasing Awards, Ten Year anniversary exhibition.
Catalogue, European Photography Award 1985-1994. ISBN: 3-89322-676-1.
Viewfindings, Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance.
Catalogue, Viewfindings, Women Photographers:"Landscape" and Environment. ISBN: 1-899457-00-3.

1995
Warworks, The Victoria & Albert Museum.
Then British tour with The South Bank TES.
Viewfindings, Watershed, Bristol.
Then National Museum of Photography, Film & TV, Bradford.
Mai de la Photo, Rheims.
Catalogue, 1995, Esthetiques de l'Ordinaire. ISBN: 2-9503016-5-7.

1996
Documentary Dilemmas, Thessaloniki Photosynkyria, Greece.
Catalogue 9th International Photography Meeting Photosynkyria ISBN: 960-7672-03-8.
Warworks, The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa

1997
On The Bright Side of Life, NBGK Berlin.
Catalogue, On The Bright Side of Life. ISBN: 3-926796-5-02
On The Bright Side of Life, Kunstverein, Ludwigschafen.

1998
Inventories, Shoreditch Biennale.
The English on The English, New British Photography,
La Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles.
Catalogue 1998: Un Noveau Paysage Humain. ISBN 2-7427-1780-3

1999
Interior Brittania, Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montreal
Catalogue 1999: Interior Brittania. ISBN 0-920473-19-9
Catalogue 1999: Les 400 Corps, Le Mois de la Photo a Montreal. ISBN 2-921620-67-7
New Natural History, National Museum of Photography, Bradford.
Catalogue 1999: New Natural History. ISBN: 0 948489 30 8

2000
New Natural History, Hasselblad Foundation, Gotenberg.

2001
Face On, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool. Stills Gallery, Edinburgh.
Fair Play, Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London.

2002
Fair Play, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham
Shoe, Leicester City Gallery, (other exhibitors include Henry Bond, Paul Rooney and Izima Kaoru)
Shoe, Dundee Contemporary Arts

2003
From Tarzan to Rambo, Tate Modern. Other exhibitors included Harold Offeh, Sonia Boyce.
Further Up in the Air, Liverpool. Group show including Jordan Baseman, Will Self, Paul Rooney, Elizabeth Wright, Marcus Coates.

2004
Collections d'oevres photographiques de la Caisse des dépots et Consignations, Centre Culturgest de la Caixa general de depositos, Lisbon. Other exhibitors included Tacita Dean, Thomas Ruff, Sophie Ristelhueber.
Shrinking Cities, Kunstwerke, Berlin, group as above for Further Up In The Air.
Metamporphosis of the Real, Encontras da Imagen, Portugal. Other exhibitors included Pierre et Gilles, Joachim Schmid, Didier Massard.
Sanctuary, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art. Other exhibitors included Keith Arnatt, Emma Barton, Neeta Madahar, Sian Bonnell.

2005
Londoners at Work, The Museum of London in Docklands.

2004
Diva call me Escariot, London College of Fashion

2006
1 + 1 = 3 Collaboration in recent British Portraiture, Fotofreo, Perth then Australian Center for Photography, Sydney. Other exhibitors include: Melanie Manchot, Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin.
The Office/In and Out of the Box, Dorsky Gallery New York, other exhibitors included Martin Parr, Phillip Lorca di Corcia, Tina Barney.
Encontras da Imagen A Retrospective, Braga
Les Peintres de la Vie Moderne, Pompidou Centre, other exhibitors include Karen Knorr, Martin Parr, Andreas Gursky Thomas Struth, Sophie Ristelhueber.

2007
Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant-Garde, Tate Liverpool. Other exhibitors include Alec Soth, Henri Cartier Bresson, Martin Parr, Rineke Dykstra.
How We Are: Photography in Britain Now, Tate Britain. Other exhibitors include: Martin Parr, Paul Seawright, David Spero.

2008
Knight of the Camera, Birmingham City Library. Other exhibitors Benjamin Stone, Daniel Meadows, Homer Sykes.

2010
Deutsche Borse Photography Prize, The Photographers Gallery, London. Other exhibitors: Sophie Ristelhueber, Zoe Leonard, Donnovan Wylie.
The Itchy Scratchy Picture Show, Permanent Gallery, Brighton
Deutsche Borse Photography Prize, Kunstverein, Frankfurt.
Facts of Life, National Gallery, Krakow. Other exhibitors include Paul Graham, Martin Parr, Chris Killip, Jem Southam, Tom Hunter.
Nothing is in the Place curated by Jason Evans, Photomonth, Krakow and Brighton Fringe

2011
Black & White, Abadi Arts Centre, New Delhi
The Colours Exhibitions; A Trilogy, Abadi Arts Centre, New Delhi
Convulsive Beauty. Surrealist Photography and its Legacy, James Hyman, London. Other exhibitors included Man Ray, Atget, Brassai and Woodman
Exposure 2011, The National Media Museum Award winners, James Hyman Gallery, London
From Talbot to Fox. 150 Years of British Social Photography, James Hyman Gallery at AIPAD, New York

2012 Always Greener, PM Gallery, London.
The World in London, Photographers Gallery for the Olympics, shown in Victoria Park and Oxford St (opposite Selfridges)
37 Indian Still Lives, Tasveer Arts, Bangalore.
Observadores, British Council touring show on the history of British photography from 1930. Sao Paul

2013
Love Will Tear Us Apart, Encontras da Imagem, Braga
A Photograph is not an Opinion, Focus Photography Festival, Mumbai
Fresh Intelligence, The Courtyard Gallery, Bristol.

2014
Rock & Roll, Photoaumnales, Beauvais
Home and Away, Vadehra, New Delhi

2015
Work, Rest and Play; British Photography from the 1960s to Today, OCT-Loft, Shenzen; Minsheng Museum, Shanghai
Portraits from an Island, Goa international Photography Festival at the One School Goa.

2016
Work, Rest and Play; British Photography from the 1960s to Today, Three Shadows Photographic Art Centre, Xiamen

2017
The Moon and a Smile, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
Creating the Countryside, Compton Verney
Hangzhou Citizen's Photography Festival, China
Festival Internacional do Fotografia, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

2018
Modern Nature, The Hepworth, UK
IMAGE, Messum's Wiltshire
The Third Beijing Photo Biennale, Beijing

2019
Seaside Photographed, Turner Contemporary, Margate
Home Sweet Home, Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles and Institut pour la Photographie, Lille
The Center is not Holding, Real Pain Fine Arts, Los Angeles

2020
Masculinities, Barbican Centre Art Gallery, Luma Foundation, Arles and Gropius Bau, Berlin
Seaside Photographed, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool and Newlyn & The Exchange, Cornwall
When Photography still made a Difference, Seoul Museum of Art

Bibliography

PUBLICATIONS
1988
Work Stations, text by Sunil Gupta, pub by Camerawork

1999
Zwarte Piet, text by Mieke Bal published by Black Dog. ISBN: 1 901 03386

2000
Cockroach Diary, published by Shoreditch Biennale. ISBN:0-9533199-2-x
My Mother's Cupboards and My Father's Words, pub by Shoreditch Biennale. ISBN:0-953319-93-8
Made in Milton Keynes 2001, pub.by Milton Keynes Gallery. ISBN: 0-9536755-5-6

2002
Made in Kaunas 2002, pub by Milton Keynes Gallery. ISBN: 0-9542029-1-0
Made in Gothenburg 2002, pub by Milton Keynes Gallery ISBN: 0-9542029-2-9

2003
Made in Florence 2003, pub by MK Gallery ISBN 0-9542029-5-3
Made in Los Cristianos 2003, MK Gallery. ISBN 0-9542029-4-5

2007
Anna Fox Photographs 1983 - 2007 published by Photoworks with texts by
Val Williams, Mieke Bal, David Chandler, Jason Evans. ISBN; 1-903796-22-1

2010
41 Hewitt Road published by The Photographers Gallery/Impressions. ISBN: 978-0-907879-89-3

2013
Resort 1 published by Schilt (ISBN 9-789053-308035), T&H distribution.

2014
Loisirs published by Diaphane (ISBN 9782919 077267)

2015
Resort 2 published by Schilt (ISBN 9 789053 308400), T&H distribution.
Portraits from an Island, catalogue with authored essay for Goa International Photography Festival.

2018
Blink, published by CSM (ISBN 978-1-9164524-0-4)

2019
Katalog, women in photography from the Fast Forward project with authored essay

2020
My Mother's Cupboards and My Father's Words (2nd edition) Here Press ISBN: 978-1-9993494-4-8

PUBLICATIONS REFERENCING FOX WORK

1995
Documentalismo Fotografico Contemporaneo.
Margarita Ledo Andion. ISBN: 84-7507-863-X.

1999
Catalogue of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Charloi. ISBN: 90-5544-077-9.

2000
Visual Narrative Mix: Interdisciplinary Collisions and Collusions, pub Southampton Institute Fine Art Research Centre ISBN: 1-874011-09-5

2002
'Travelling Concepts in the Humanities' by Mieke Bal, pub by Toronto University Press: ISBN 0-8020-8410-9.

2003
Denken Over Cultuur, Dutch Open University Chapter by Mieke Bal ISBN: 90 358 2067 3
Further Up in the Air, from the commission of the same name. ISBN: 0 954 57780 9

2004
Furthermore a book of proposals, pub by Furtherafield. ISBN: 9 780954 577810

2005
Mirar el Mundo Otra Vez, Galeria Spectrum Collection 25 years of Photography. ISBN: 84-8069-277-4
The Photograph as Contemporary Art, Charlotte Cotton, Thames & Hudson. ISBN: 13 978 0500203804

2007
Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant-Garde, Tate Liverpool ISBN: 1846310814
How We Are: Photography in Britain Now, Tate Britain, Val Williams. ISBN: 1854377140

2008
The History of British Art 1870 - Now, edited by Chris Stephens, published by Tate publishing. ISBN: 9781854376527

2010
Deutsche Borse Photography Prize, The Photographers Gallery, London. Text by Michael Bracewell.
Auto-Focus, Susan Bright, Thames and Hudson, ISBN: 978-0-500-54389-4
The Pleasures of Good Photographs, Gerry Badger, Aperture ISBN: 978-1-59711-139-3

2014
The Photobook: History Volume 3, Phaidon ISBN 978-0-7148-6677-2

2015
Photography Today, Mark Durden. Phaidon. ISBN: 978-0-7148-4563-0
The Photographer's Playbook, Edited by Jason Fulford and Gregory Halpern.
Aperture, NY. ISBN: 978- 1-59711-247-5
Rural Modernity, Everyday Life and Visual Culture, Rosemary Shirley.
Routledge. ISBN: 978 1 4742 3142 1

2017
Creating the Countryside, Verity Ellison, ed Rosemary Shirley, Paul Holberton. ISBN: 978 1 911300 10 6

2018
Another Way of Telling, published by SCoP

2019
Seaside Photographed, Thames & Hudson ISBN 978-0-500-02206-1
Home Sweet Home, Textuel ISBN 978-2-84597-766-2

EDITORSHIPS
1995
Editor for Arena, photographs of the development of the Manchester Arena by Len Grant. ISBN: 0-9526720-0-6

1998
Co- editor with V.Williams, Street Dreams, published by Booth-Clibborn Editions and the Shoreditch Biennale. ISBN: 1-861540-71-X.

2007
Co-editor with Richard Sawdon Smith: The 8th Edition of Langfords Basic Photography, Focalpress. ISBN: 978-0-240-52035-3. Translated into 7 languages: Portugese; Spanish; Chinese (Simplified); German; Korean; Italian and Russian.)

2010
Co-editor with Richard Sawdon Smith: The 9th Edition of Langfords Basic Photography, Focalpress.

2012
Co-writer with Natasha Caruana, Behind the Image, AVA Press

2015
Co-editor with Richard Sawdon Smith: The 10th Edition of Langfords Basic Photography, Focalpress

2018
Forward for Photography in India, Bloomsbury, eds. Chinar Shah and Aileen Bayley

2019
Co-writer with Natasha Caruana, Behind the Image 2nd edition, Taylor Francis

2020
Katalog Journal issue 3 Women in Photography with authored essay
Journal of Photography and Culture special issue on women in photography