Photographers and Research The role of research in contemporary photographic practice

This ground-breaking book situates research at the heart of photographic practice, asking the key question: What does research mean for photographers? Illuminating the nature and scope of research and its practical application to photography, the book explores how research provides a critical framework to help develop awareness, extend subject knowledge, and inform the development of photographic work. The authors consider research as integral to the creative process and, through interviews with leading photographers, explore how photographers have embedded research strategies into their creative practice.

1. Foreword (Peter Kennard)

2. Preface (Shirley Read and Mike Simmons)

3. Case Study: Edmund Clark

4. Case Study: Hannah Collins

5. Case Study: Subhankar Banerjee

6. Case Study: John Darwell

7. Case Study: Grace Lau

8. Case Study: Judy Harrison

9. Case Study: Tom Hunter

10. Case Study: Ingrid Pollard

11. Case Study: Deborah Padfield

12. Case Study: Susan Derges

13. Case Study: Mandy Barker

14. Case Study: Martin Hartley

15. Case Study: Deborah Bright

16. Case Study: Simon Norfolk

17. Case Study: Research in Higher Education, Thu Thuy Pham, Charlotte Fox, and Maria Paschalidou

18. Between Inner and Outer Worlds (Patricia Townsend)

19. Finding and Knowing; Thinking about ideas (Shirley Read)

20. A Photographer in the Archive (Janina Struk)

21. Collaborative Working (Conohar Scott)

22. Documenting the Process (Mike Simmons)

23. Research and Audience (Sian Bonnell)

24. A Curators Perspective (Camilla Brown)

Shirley Read is an independent curator based in London. She currently curates exhibitions for the Idea Store Canary Wharf during the Photomonth International Photography Festival. She has been interviewing photographers about their lives and work for the Oral History of British Photography (part of the National Sound Archive at the British Library) for twenty years. She teaches at every level of photographic practice and her book Exhibiting Photography (Focal Press 2008 & 2014) has been published in Chinese and English.

Mike Simmons is a photographic artist, author and Leader of the taught Master’s Program in Photography at De Montfort University. His research interests are centered on the development of innovative approaches to exploring issues of social concern, through the application of creative photography. He has contributed to numerous exhibitions, conferences and symposia in the UK, Europe, Australia and the USA.