I am a Professor of Photography and Media and Director of Coventry University’s £4.5 million Disruptive Media Learning Lab, a semi-autonomous experimental unit with remit to specifically drive innovation of teaching, learning and practice forward across the University.
I have been described as being part of an early generation of artists responsible for the emergence of a new school of photography which blurs the boundaries between the still and moving image. Like that of my predecessors, my work can be seen as part of a long tradition of experimentation whereby the camera apparatus becomes both an instrument of scientific record and a tool for aesthetic exploration.
My fascination with the representation of time and movement in, and through, photography culminated in Time|Motion published by Dewi Lewis in 2003, which placed my work alongside the photographic pioneers Eadweard Muybridge and Harold Edgerton. In 2004 I was nominated for prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award. (re)collect a monograph on his work, was published by Pavilion in 2006. Crash published in 2009 by New Art Gallery Walsall, employed Japanese folding techniques binding a single image as the entirety of the book.
My last publication, NEWFOTOSCAPES (2014) looked to the futures of photography and photography education, produced in collaboration with GRAIN Photography Hub and the Library of Birmingham. It evokes a more radical approach to the photo-book. It explores principles of open and hybrid publishing, releasing the book from a static container of knowledge to a more fluid and dynamic state. NEWFOTOSCAPES was released under a creative commons license, simultaneously available for free online, as an agile eBook and as an exquisite hard back.
I am the outgoing Chair of the Association for Photography in Higher Education, the UK’s official network for photography educators. As an Adobe Education Leader, I form part of a worldwide community championing creativity in education. Iwas awarded a direct fellowship of Royal Photographic Society (RPS) for my achievements in the field of photography, and a fellowship of the RSA, in recognition of my work in photography education practices. In 2014 I became a visiting fellow at the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice at Bournemouth University.
I also work in an advisory capacity as the Chair of the Board of Directors for Birmingham Open Media (BOM) UK, which focusses on creative innovation and radical research with art, technology and science. I am an international academic board member for Photography Studies College, Melbourne, Australia, successive winner for excellence in photography education since 2011 and rated as the number one photography college in Australia. Most recently, I was invited to become a trustee for The Photographers’ Gallery, London, supporting innovation with the digital and education strategies.
Previously, I was Acting Head and Associate Head of Department for Media (Innovation, Profile & Research) at School of Art & Design, Coventry University. During this time my colleagues and I were responsible for pioneering free and open photography educational resources at Coventry University: the classes picbod.org (Picturing the Body) & phonar.org (Photography and Narrative) have been accessed by thousands of people worldwide; the apps developed have been called ground-breaking and the Photographic Mediations collection he curated on iTunesU has had in excess of a million listens.
My commissioned work includes pieces for Volkswagen UK, the Manhattan Loft Corporation, and Nigel Coates’ book Guide to Ecstacity published by Laurence King Publishing.