Ambre UK 
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Through my photography I seek to challenge traditional ideas of therelationship between self and the body. I am trying to present vision of the subject as fundamentally embodied whilst raising questions as to theclosure and integrity of the self. I wish to present the body not as a protective envelope that defines and unifies our limits, but as an organof physical and psychical interchange between bodies- a kind of inter-subjectivity that produces identity. In my work the body is presented as unstable, ambiguous, fluid, and constantly in flux. I am hoping to highlight how our experience of the body is always already mediated by our continual interactions with other human and non-human bodies. To draw attention to the invisible forces of culture and psychology that shape and reshape the body.
Photography is a particularly appropriate medium for my purposes given its historical associations and recent digital transformation. Photography once appeared to provide us with causally generated ‘truthful’ records of things in the world. In the digital age this definition of photography has collapsed, yet the belief in the photograph as a faithful record of reality stubbornly persists. I’m interested in exploiting this discrepancy to interrogate conceptions of identity and to challenge photography’s supposed indexical correspondence to the world.
Taken from several points of view, composed of multiple shots, compressing several instances into a single frame, they are compositions of unified fragments. The images are constructed in a manner closer to the manual labour of painting.
Ultimately I’m interested in the synthesis of a variety of apparently contradictory dichotomies: mind and body, nature and culture, inside and outside, painting and photography, fiction and reality, and I try to collapse these distinctions into each other. |
Exhibitions
Selected exhibitions:
- 2006 The Death of Taste – Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), London
- 2006 PDN’s Pix Digital Imaging Award Exhibition, New York City
- 2006 AOP Open, Association of Photographer’s Gallery, London
- 2002 Royal Photographic Society 145th International Print Competition, UK
- 2002 Open, Café Gallery Projects, London
- 2002 Design Now – Graphics, Design Museum, London
- 2001 Letchworth 2nd Easter open, The Place, Letchworth
- 2000 Lauderdale House Photographic Competition Exhibition, London
- 1993 BP Portrait Award Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London
Selected Awards
- 2007 First Prize-Portraiture-Other PX3: Prix de la Photographie Paris
- 2006 Photographer of the Year: Fine Art, The International Photography Award
- 2006 Nominated for ‘Discovery of the Year’ The Lucie Awards
- 2006 First Prize – Fine Art: Nude The International Photography Awards
- 2006 Merit Award – PDN’s Pix Digital Imaging Award 2006
- 2005 First Prize – Beauty, The International Photography Awards 2005
- 2005 Honourable Mention – Fine Art, The International Photography Awards
- 2005 Honourable Mention - Nude, The International Photography Awards
- 2005 Judges Choice – AOP Open, The Association of Photographers Gallery, London
- 2003 D&AD Award Photography and Image Manipulation For Advertising
- 2002 The Royal Photographic Society 145th International Print Competition 2002, UK
- 2002 D&AD Award, Photography and Image Manipulation For Design
- 2001 Merit - Letchworth 2nd Easter open, The Place, Letchworth
- 2000 Judges Choice - Lauderdale House Photographic Competition, London |
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