Jem Southam (born 1950) is a British

landscape photographer Landscape photography shows the spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes ...

and educator. He has had solo exhibitions at

Tate St Ives Tate St Ives is an art gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, England, exhibiting work by modern British artists with links to the St Ives area. The Tate also took over management of another museum in the town, the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture ...

, the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

The Lowry The Lowry is a theatre and gallery complex at Salford Quays, Salford, Greater Manchester, England. It is named after the early 20th-century painter L. S. Lowry, known for his paintings of industrial scenes in North West England. The complex ope ...

, and the

Royal West of England Academy The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is Bristol's oldest art gallery, located in Clifton, Bristol, near the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Situated in a Grade 2* listed building, it hosts five galleries and an exhibition program ...

. Southam's work is held in the collections of the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

; UK

Government Art Collection The Government Art Collection (GAC) is the collection of artworks owned by the UK government and administered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The GAC's artworks are used to decorate major government buildings in t ...

;

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood, Los Angeles, Brentwood neighborhood ...

, Los Angeles;

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York;

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art. In 2007, ''Time'' magaz ...

, Kansas City, Missouri;

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Ste ...

;

Science Museum Group The Science Museum Group (SMG) consists of five British museums: * The Science Museum in South Kensington, London * The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester * The National Railway Museum in York * The Locomotion Museum (formerly the Natio ...

, UK;

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, UK; and the

, London.

Life and work

Southam was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. He studied creative photography at the

London College of Printing The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation, film, graphic design, photography and sound arts. It has approximately ...

, then worked at

Arnolfini Gallery Arnolfini is an international arts centre and gallery in Bristol, England. It has a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, artist's performance, music and dance events, poetry and book readings, talks, lectures and cinema. There is also a ...

in Bristol from 1976 to 1982. He taught at

Falmouth School of Art Falmouth University ( kw, Pennskol Aberfal) is a specialist public university for the creative industries based in Falmouth and Penryn, Cornwall, England. Founded as Falmouth School of Art in 1902, it was later known as Falmouth College of Ar ...

then taught photography for many years at the

University of Plymouth The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...

where he is now emeritus Professor of Photography in the School of Art, Design and Architecture. Predominantly, "Southam's subject is the rural landscape of the South West of England, where he lives and works." He conducts long-term studies of selected sites, that trace changes over seasons and even several years. His first project, in black and white, was ''The Floating Harbour: a Landscape History of Bristol City Docks'' (1977–84). All subsequent series are in colour and include ''Paintings of the West of Cornwall'' (1982–86); and ''The Long White Cloud'', made in New Zealand at the end of 2018. He uses an 8×10

large format Large format refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120- and 220-roll film), and much larger than the frame o ...

view camera A view camera is a large-format camera in which the lens forms an inverted image on a ground-glass screen directly at the film plane. The image is viewed and then the glass screen is replaced with the film, and thus the film is exposed to exact ...

Publications

*''The Floating Harbour – A landscape history of Bristol City Docks''. Redcliff, 1982. With John Lord. *''The Red River''. Manchester:

Cornerhouse Cornerhouse was a centre for cinema and the contemporary visual arts, located next to Oxford Road Station on Oxford Street, Manchester, England, which was active from 1985–2015. It had three floors of art galleries, three cinemas, a booksho ...

, 1989. With essays by D.M.Thomas, Frank Turk and Jan Ruhrmund. *''The Raft of Carrots''. London:

The Photographers' Gallery The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography. It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established in ...

, 1992. With an essay by David Chandler. *''Rockfalls, Rivermouths and Ponds''. Eastbourne:

Towner Gallery Towner Art Gallery is located in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on the south coast of England. It hosts one of the most significant public art collections in the South of England and draws over 100,000 visitors a year. It was described by ITV News a ...

; Maidstone:

Photoworks Photoworks is a UK development agency dedicated to photography, based in Brighton, England and founded in 1995.

, 2000. With essays by David Chandler, Ian Jeffrey and Jeremy Millar. *''Landscape Stories''. Princeton Architectural Press/Blindspot, 2005. With essays by Andy Grundberg and

Gerry Badger Gerald David "Gerry" Badger (born 1946) is an English writer and curator of photography, and a photographer. In 2018 he received the J Dudley Johnston Award from the Royal Photographic Society. Life and career Badger was born in 1946 in Northam ...

. . *''The Painter's Pool''. Nazraeli, 2007. With an essay by Chris Cook. *''Clouds Descending''. Salford: Lowry, 2008 With essays by Nick Alfrey, Lindsay Brooks, David Chandler,

Richard Hamblyn Richard Hamblyn (born 1965) is a British environmental writer and historian. He is a lecturer in the Department of English, Theatre and Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London, and has contributed articles and reviews to the ''Sunday T ...

, Matthew Southam and Harriet Tarlo. *''Rockfalls and Ponds''. La Fabrica /

PHotoEspaña PHotoEspaña, the International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts of Madrid, is a photography forum that began in 1998. The Festival’s program presents work by Spanish and international image-makers. It runs an awards programme with sever ...

, 2010. With an introduction by Sergio Mah. *''The Moth''. London: Mack. 2018. *''Four Winters''. London: Stanley/Barker, 2022. . *''The Harbour''. Bristol: RRB, 2023.

Solo exhibitions

*''Jem Southam: From A Distance: An Industrial Landscape in Cornwall'',

, St Ives, 2004/5 *''Jem Southam: Path to a Picture'',

, London, 2006 *''Clouds Descending'',

, Salford, 2010 *''Jem Southam: A Bend in The River'',

, Bristol, 2023

Awards

*2001: Shortlisted, Citigroup Photography Prize, London

Collections

Southam's work is held in the following permanent collections: *

, New York: 1 print (as of 10 October 2022) *

, UK *

, UK: 4 prints (as of 10 October 2022) *

, Los Angeles, California: 7 prints (as of 10 October 2022) *

, Kansas City, Missouri: 2 prints (as of 11 October 2022) *

, UK: 5 prints (as of 10 October 2022) *

, UK: 12 prints (as of 10 October 2022) *

, London: 11 prints (as of 10 October 2022)

References

External links

* at Huxley Parlour {{DEFAULTSORT:Southam, Jem Landscape photographers Photography academics 21st-century British photographers 20th-century British photographers Photographers from Bristol Academics of the University of Plymouth Academics of Falmouth University Alumni of the London College of Printing Living people 1950 births