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Dr Kate Mellor

See more of Kate’s work at katemellor.com

I am a fine art photographer with a particular interest in landscape issues.  I am interested in landscape as a cultural construct rather than a particular photographic genre and so can include such things as portraits and architecture.  My work is known as critical, in that I am always looking for ways to extend the language of photography and find out what the medium can do.  Although I do not consider myself a documentary photographer my work is strongly influenced by a documentary aesthetic and often plays with theoretical arguments on the medium’s transparency and relationship with truth.

I have been asked to work on many residencies and fellowships and the results have been exhibited in the UK and further afield, including the US, Europe, and the Middle East. I have also spoken about my work at several international conferences.  My teaching experience includes lecturing in photography and visual literacy at universities, presenting talks about my practice as a visiting speaker and leading workshops at arts, educational and alternative venues.

Although I use different types of photographic equipment I am particularly interested in using a pinhole camera, a method that I first adopted while working on In the Steps of Robert Pinnacle for the European Year of the Electronic Image back in 1998. I have been using this format for its “unreal” aesthetic ever since. Apart from using this small wooden box for its visual and theoretical dimensions I like the way it gathers people who start discussions about photography and the subject of architecture.  Above is a recent image from my work about post-industrial topographies and signature buildings.  The photograph spans both analogue and digital photographic technologies.