photographer
A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographers
As in other ...
. He is a member of
Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in New York City, Paris, London and Tokyo. It was founded in 1947 in Paris by photographers Robert Capa, David "Chim" Seymour, Maria Eisn ...
University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achiev ...
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, in 1959. He studied
Fine Art
In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...
at
Brighton Polytechnic
The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achiev ...
(1978–1981), and then travelled extensively, discovering a love for
photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...
along the way. Upon his return, he worked as a freelance for several UK publications and charities.
Power happened to be in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
on 9 November 1989 and photographed the
fall of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of eve ...
. He later published the photographs in the book ''Die Mauer ist Weg!'' (2014).
Between 1992 and 1996, he embarked on ''The Shipping Forecast'' — a project that involved travelling to and photographing all 31 areas covered by the
Shipping Forecast
The Shipping Forecast is a BBC Radio broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles. It is produced by the Met Office and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. ...
broadcast on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
. This project was published as a book and was a touring exhibition across the UK and France. He used a
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...
campervan
A camper van, also referred to as a camper, caravanette, motor caravan or RV (recreational vehicle) in North America, is a self-propelled vehicle that provides both transport and sleeping accommodation. The term describes vans that have been fitt ...
as his mode of transport for the project, echoing the late
Tony Ray-Jones
Tony Ray-Jones (7 June 1941 – 13 March 1972) was an English photographer.
Life
Born Holroyd Anthony Ray-Jones in Wells, Somerset, he was the youngest son of Raymond Ray-Jones (1886–1942), a painter and etcher who died when Tony was ...
, whose work has similarities in style and meaning to Power's.
Between 1997 and 2000, Power was commissioned to document the Millennium Dome in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, a project that resulted in another touring exhibition and the accompanying book, ''Superstructure.'' Around this time his technical methods changed and he began to use colour film and a large format camera. This was followed by ''The Treasury Project,'' published in 2002, which recorded the renovation of the UK government's treasury building on Whitehall, London.
In 2003, he undertook another personal project, using the '' London A–Z'' map as inspiration. The work, titled ''26 Different Endings,'' is a collection of images examining the areas on the outer boundaries of the map. The project was exhibited at the Centre of Visual Art at the University of Brighton, and was published as a book in 2007.
Between 1988 and 2002 Power was a member of Network Photographers. In 2002 he became a nominee of
Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in New York City, Paris, London and Tokyo. It was founded in 1947 in Paris by photographers Robert Capa, David "Chim" Seymour, Maria Eisn ...
, an associate in 2005 and a full member in 2007.
Between 1992 and 2004 he was Senior Lecturer in Photography at the University of Brighton, becoming Professor of Photography in 2004, until the present.
From 2004, he spent five years working on ''The Sound of Two Songs,'' on Poland's first five years as a member of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
.
Between 2006 and 2010 Power collaborated with poet Daniel Cockrill to document the rise in English nationalism. The pair undertook a series of road trips around England, culminating in the book ''Destroying the Laboratory for the Sake of the Experiment.''
In 2011 he undertook a commission from Multistory to make work that explored the social landscape of the Black Country through photography and film. He made urban landscapes; a series of photographs of elegant footwear; and a series of short films made in
beauty salon
A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment dealing with cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, and medical spas.
Beauty treatments
Massage for the body is a ...
s,
tattoo parlour
A tattoo artist (also tattooer or tattooist) is an individual who applies permanent decorative tattoos, often in an established business called a "tattoo shop", "tattoo studio" or "tattoo parlour". Tattoo artists usually learn their craft via an ...
s and nightclubs.
In 2014 Power began a self-publishing imprint, Globtik Books, with the publication of his book ''Die Mauer ist Weg!.''
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 exactly ...
, after he worked with
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 ...
film for many years. More recently he diversified into short film making.
Photoworks
Photoworks is a UK development agency dedicated to photography, based in Brighton, England and founded in 1995.
, 2002. . Edition of 1500 copies, of which only 500 were made available for public sale.
* ''26 Different Endings''. Brighton: Photoworks, 2007. . Edition of 1000 copies.
* ''Signes''. Gulbenkian Foundation exhibition catalogue, 2008. .
* ''The Sound of Two Songs''. Brighton: Photoworks, 2010. . Edition of 2000 copies.
* ''MASS''. Gost, 2013. . Edition of 750 copies.
* ''Swap Shop - Postcards from America IV: Florida''. London: Magnet Publishing, 2013.
*''Die Mauer ist Weg!.'' Brighton and Hove: self-published / Globtik Books, 2014. . Edition of 1000 copies.
*''Icebreaker.'' Another Place, 2018. . Edition of 600 copies.
*''Maintenance.'' Kyoto, Japan: Seigensha, 2018. .
*''Good Morning, America (Volume I).'' London: Gost, 2019. .
*''Good Morning, America (Volume II).'' London: Gost, 2019. .
*''Good Morning, America (Volume II).'' London: Gost, 2020. .
*''Terre à l'Amende''. London: Gost, 2021. .
Collaborative publications
*''Buren, document Nederland, drie buitenlandse fotografen kijken naar Nederland'' = ''Neighbours: The Netherlands as seen by three foreign photographers.'' Amsterdam: De Verbeelding, 2000. With and
Stephan Vanfleteren
Stephan Vanfleteren (born 1969) is a Belgian photographer, best known for his portraits in black and white and his depictions of Belgium and abroad.
Biography
Stephan Vanfleteren was born in Kortrijk in 1969,Cassell, 1993. . Part of the Cassell AIDS Awareness Series. Edited by Stephen Mayes and Lyndall Stein. Power contributes photographs for a chapter, "Grief and Loss". With a foreword by
Edmund White
Edmund Valentine White III (born 1940) is an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer and an essayist on literary and social topics. Since 1999 he has been a professor at Princeton University. France made him (and later ) de l'Ordr ...
and an introduction by Stephen Mayes. Each chapter also includes a written essay.
*''Home.'' Tokyo:
Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in New York City, Paris, London and Tokyo. It was founded in 1947 in Paris by photographers Robert Capa, David "Chim" Seymour, Maria Eisn ...
Tokyo, 2018. .
Awards
*2000: Second prize, Arts and Entertainment stories category,
World Press Photo
World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization is known for holding an annual press photography contest. Since 2011, World Press Photo has organized a ...
Honorary Fellowship
Honorary titles (professor, reader, lecturer) in academia may be conferred on persons in recognition of contributions by a non-employee or by an employee beyond regular duties. This practice primarily exists in the UK and Germany, as well as in m ...