Born Bristol 1971. Lives in Hackney, London.
At an early age, Stephen was introduced to photography by his father. Combining his interests in birds, animals and music, he began to take photographs.
In 1985, while still at school, Stephen worked with a Bristol-based photographer, copying and restoring old photographs and helping to take family portraits. Two years later, he began working full-time in a one-hour photo lab in the city.
In 1992 he enrolled in the Photography foundation course at Filton College in Bristol and, a year later, began to work at Magnum Photos in London, firstly as an intern and then full-time. In 1997 he become freelance and since has continued to make a variety of personal photographic series.
Stephen’s photographs are now held in various private and public collections and have also been exhibited at many international galleries and museums including London’s National Portrait Gallery, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Agnes B, Victoria Miro Gallery, Galerie Zur Stockeregg, Gun Gallery, The Photographers’ Gallery, Palais des Beaux Arts, Leighton House Museum, Haus Der Kunst and has had solo shows in festivals including - Recontres d’Arles, The Toronto photography festival and PHotoEspaña.
Stephen founded his publishing imprint Nobody in 2005 in order to exercise maximum control over the publication process of his books. His overriding intention is to make the book the finished expression of the photographs, rather than just a shell in which to house them. Experimentation with materials, and a hands-on, tactile approach to maquette making lead, in many cases, to his finished books having an individual, unique presence. This tactile approach includes materials and techniques such as lino cut printing, letter press printing, mono prints, spray paint, rubber stamps and on occasion entire books are manufactured and assembled by hand in Stephen’s Hackney studio. He considers the bookmaking process to be a key final stage in the production of his photographic works, and he aims to make books that are conceptually consistent with their content. All decisions made during production are therefore directed by the requirements of the work rather than any external influences or considerations.
Selected exhibitions
Solo
2009. Hackney Flowers - Gaain Gallery, Korea, 3 - 30 Sept
2009. Hackney Flowers - G/P Gallery, Tokyo
2008. A Series of Disappointments - Gungallery, Stockholm
2007. Anonymous Origami and Buried - Leighton House Museum
2006. Toronto Photography Festival, Canada
2005. Invisible and Lost - PHotoEspaña, Real Jardín Botánico
2005. The Architectural Association, London
2004. Field Studies - The State Centre of Architecture, Moscow
2004. Recontres d’Arles Photography festival.
2003. Hackney Wick - The Photographers’ Gallery, London
Group
2010. London Calling, James Hyman Gallery 25 February - 1 May
2010. Danziger Projects, New York, 22 Jan - 27 February
2010. The New Old - Invisible-Exports, New York, 15 Jan - 21 February
2009. Book a Table - Rocket Gallery, 18 September - 7 November
2009. The Museum of Hackney Wick, 31 July - 2 August
2009. Sound Escapes - Space, Hackney London, 25 July – 15 August
2009. ‘I am by birth a Genevese’, Vegas Gallery, London
2009. After Color - Bose Pacia, New York, July 8 – August 21
2009. Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire - Danielle Arnaud Gallery
2008. Borderspaces - Schwartz Gallery, Hackney Wick
2008. What You See Is What You Get, CNA - Luxembourg
2008. Anonymous Origami and Disappointments - St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York
2008. Haus Der Kunst, Munich - Parrworld
2008. European Eyes on Japan - Kagoshima Museum of Art
2007. Terrains D’Entente, Paysages Contemporains - Rencontres d’Arles
2007. ‘Says the Junk in the Yard’ - Flowers East
2007. Photography and Cinema - Tri Postal, Lille
2007. Something That I’ll Never Really See - The V &A, London
2007. State of Work - Fotohof Gallery, Salzburg, Austria
2006. Click, Double Click - Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels
2006. Click, Double Click - Haus Der Kunst, Munich
2006. Courtauld Institute of Art - Somerset House, London
2005. Noorderlicht Photo Festival 2005 - The Netherlands
2005. Photography 2005 - Victoria Miro Gallery, London
Site specific
2007. Hackney Flowers, Street Exhibition, East London
2004. Billboards on Billboards Street exhibition, London.
2003. Cashpoint machines, London.
2001. An Edible exhibition, photographs on cakes with food dyes, East London.
Selected Reviews
2010. The Guardian - Creepy Crawlies
2009. The Hackney Podcast, November 2009 - Listen
2009. The Hackney Citizen - The Wicker Man, Sarah Birch - read it
2009. Shigeo Goto, The hope of photography
2009. Suwako Fukai - Quotation Magazine
2008. Most Influential in Book publishing, PDN
2008. Angharad Lewis, Lost forever, Grafik
2008. Toyoko Ito, Interview, Studio Voice, Japan
2008. Japan Esquire, Hackney Flowers
2007. Christof Schaden, Invariably Eden - foam Magaine - read
2007. Geoff Dyer - Unseen UK review / Aperture Magazine
2007. Times Photography Book of the year - read
2007. Anthony Lasala - Buried, Photo Eye Magazine
2007. Jeong Eun Kim - Fragments of a poem, Iann Magazine
2006. The Queen - on receiving a copy of Hackney Wick - read
2006. Gerry Badger -, Hackney Wick, Ag Magazine
2006. MH - Hackney Wick, Foto8 Magazine - read
2006. Iain Sinclair - Lost Treasure, The Guardian Weekend - read
2005. Sophie Malexis, Hommes Invisibles, Le Monde 2
2005. Michel Guerrin, Le photographe en anthropolgue de la ville, Le Monde
2005. Photonews, Invisible
2005. Tim Clark - PhotoEspaña, NextLevel Magazine: Issue #8
2005. Now you see them, The Guardian Weekend - read
2004. A keen observer of life, Creative Review
2004. The Kindness of Strangers, The Guardian Weekend - read
2004. Message au dos, Liberation newspaper
2004. Jane Fletcher - A book of field studies, Source Magazine
2003. Sarah Kent, Hackney Wick - Time Out
2003. Elaine Paterson - Straight out of the ordinary, Metro Newspaper
2003. Paul Wombell - Eye Catching, Design Week
2003. Martin Murray, The Wick, Source Magazine
2003. Jon Ronson, Confessions of a vino virgin, The Guardian Weekend - read
2001. Thomas Sutcliffe, Framed - The Independent Magazine
Slide show venues
Cheltenham Film Studios, UK
Studio Film Club, Trinidad
Camberwell college of arts, London
The Photographers Gallery, London
The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
The Roundchapel, Hackney London
Royal College of Art, London
Somerset House, London
Novo mesto, Slovenia
Newport School of art, media and design, Wales
The Royal Academy of Arts, London
246 / Tokyo
Southbank Centre, London
Toronto Photography festival
Gun Gallery, Stockholm
St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York
Bath literature festival
Rhubarb-Rhubarb, Birmingham
G/P Gallery, Tokyo
Awards
2009. A Series of Disappointments, Photo Eye, Best books
2008. Hackney Flowers, Shorlisted in Arles Book Award
2008. Hackney Flowers, Photobook award, Kasseler fotoforum
2008. Anonymous Origami, runner up in Specific Object Award
2008. Anonymous Origami, shortlisted Photo Espania Book award
2008. Hackney Flowers, Photography Book of the year, The Times
2007. Buried, Shorlisted in Arles Book Award
2007. Hackney Wick – Winner of Photo Eye best books
2007. Buried, Photo District News Award, Best Books
2006. Winner of Vic Odden Award
2006. Hackney Wick, Shorlisted in Arles Book Award
2006. Invisible, Photo District News Award, Best Books
2005. Invisible, Shorlisted in Arles Book Award
2004. Field Studies, Photo District News Award, Best Books
2004. Winner of John Kobal Book Award for “A book of Field Studies”
2003. Field Studies, Shorlisted in Arles Book Award
2002. John Kobal 10th Anniversary, National Portrait Gallery
2001. John Kobal Portrait Award
1997. World Press Master Class, The Netherlands
1996. John Kobal Portrait Award
1996. Ernst Haas Golden Light Award, USA
1986. Kodak Pet Portrait Award
Quotes
“Stephen Gill has learnt this: to haunt the places that haunt him. His photo-accumulations demonstrate a tender vision factored out of experience; alert, watchful, not overeager, wary of that mendacious conceit, ‘closure’. There is always flow, momentum, the sense of a man passing through a place that delights him. A sense of stepping down, immediate engagement, politic exchange. Then he remounts the bicycle and away. Loving retrievals, like a letter to a friend, never possession… What I like about Stephen Gill is that he has learnt to give us only as much as we need, the bones of the bones of the bones…”
Iain Sinclair
“Stephen Gill is emerging as a major force in British photography.
His best work is a hybrid between documentary and conceptual work. It is the repeated exploration of one idea, executed with the precision that makes these series so fascinating and illuminating. Gill brings a very British, understated irony into portrait and landscape photography.”
Martin Parr
“Stephen Gill’s photographs have all the naïve gusto of the field studies series of old. Mercifully lacking in sarcasm and malevolent irony, they are also wise and modern and beautifully laden with tiny, understated details about the way we live today.”
Jon Ronson