About
Born 1981, Hitchin, UK.
Lives and works in Manchester, UK
email: duncan.wooldridge@network.rca.ac.uk
Co-founder of the Global Photographies Network, a platform connecting academic and professional institutions to develop talks, workshops and research exploring photography around the world. Global Photographies
Co-founder of object | multiple, a platform, store and resource of artist’s multiples as critical objects. object | multiple
Teaching:
2023- Reader in Photography, School of Digital Arts, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)
2021-2023 Pathway Leader, MA Fine Art: Photography, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London (UAL)
2012-2019 Course Director, BA Fine Art Photography, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London (UAL)
Visiting/Guest Lecturer: Aalto University Helsinki, University of Brighton, Arts University Bournemouth, Chelsea College of Art, China Academy of Art Hangzhou, Falmouth University, Kingston University, Southampton Solent University, Tsukuba University, Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts,
External Examining: Roehampton University, Southampton Solent University, University of the Creative Arts Canterbury, University of Westminster
Education:
2004-2006 MA Photography, Royal College of Art, London, UK. Distinction (Thesis). Supported by the Leverhulme Trust.
2005 Artist in Residence, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA
2000-2003 BA (Hons) Photography, Southampton Solent University, UK
Selected Exhibitions, Talks and Presentations:
2025
Podcast: The Photobook Podcast, Delhi, with Lucy Soutter. Episode 11: What Is The Role of the Artist Today? Released 11 March, 2025
Lecture: Photographic Futurities and Global Photographies. Pathshala South Asian Media Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 2025
Public Conversation: Global Photographies - Materialities and Exhibitions. With Veeranganakumari Solanki and Lucy Soutter. NCPA Mumbai, 6 March 2025
Interview: Andreas Feininger’s The Photojournalist, Objektiv Press - Afterimage. 4 March 2025
Workshop: Critical Paradigms - Writing Workshop with Duncan Wooldridge and Lucy Soutter. Offset Projects, New Delhi 1 March 2025
Public Conversation: Global Photographies - Transnationality / Regionality. With Rahaab Allana, Tanvi Mishra, Suryanandini Narain and Lucy Soutter. India International Centre New Delhi. 28 February 2025
2024
Conference: 4th Image(s) International Photographic Art Forum, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, 6-7 November 2024
Conversation: Claire O’Dowd, Jeffrey Knopf, Theo Simpson and Duncan Wooldridge. Castlefield Gallery, 14 September 2024
Book Launch & Conversation: Global Photographies: Duncan Wooldridge and Lucy Soutter in conversation with Nina Mangalanayagam, Tanvi Mishra and Agnes Bashty, Landskrona Festival Exercishallen, 7 September 2024
Book Launch and Conversation: Claire Bishop in conversation with Duncan Wooldridge, Disordered Attention: How We Look at Art and Performance Today, UNITOM, Manchester, 25 July 2024
Book Review: Japanese Photography Magazines 1880s - 1980s, edited by Kaneko Ryuichi, Toda Maskao and Ivan Vartanian. Photomonitor. 24 June 2024
Public Conversation (Online): To Be Determined: Only the future revisits the past. Duncan Wooldridge, Tom Lovelace and Nikki Lam. Organised by Thom Bridge, with the Centre for Contemporary Photography Melbourne, and Manchester Metropolitan University, 6 May 2024.
2023
Essay: Laure Winants. Camera Austria Issue 104. November 2023.
Essay: Redistributions of the Sensitized. Trigger: Energy, Published by FOMU and Fw: Books. November 2023.
Public Conversation: Critical Beans: Tom Viaene, Emese Mucsi, Daria Tuminas, Ángel González Fernández and Julia Gelezova, in conversation with Natasha Christia, Lucy Soutter and Duncan Wooldridge. Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, 9 November 2023.
Visiting Scholar, Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town, October 2023.
Keynote Lecture: Photography and The Future, Tsukuba University Art and Design Conference, Japan, 26-28 September 2023.
Artwork in a Group Exhibition: ABC Office, Filet London, 27-30 April 2023.
Co-editor of a Book of Interviews: Writers Conversations, March 2023. Edited by Lucy Soutter & Duncan Wooldridge. Published by 1000 Words Magazine.
Public Conversation: Dafna Talmor in Conversation with Duncan Wooldridge. Royal Photographic Society (online). 14 March 2023.
Conference: Art Criticism as Creation/Practice, Ars Curia/Yumiko Chiba Associates, Tokyo, Japan. Chaired by Ryo Sawayama. 12 March 2023.
Speaker at a Photography Festival/Exhibition: The Antiphotobook. Format Festival, Derby. 18 March 2023.
2022
Essay: Thomas Ruff’s ‘d.o.pe’. Essay commissioned to accompany a solo exhibition by the artist at David Zwirner Gallery New York, September 2022.
Moderator in a Public Talk: Matter over Mind: Photography’s Expanding Territories, featuring Ibrahim Azab, Seungwon Jung and Richard Paul, and Duncan Wooldridge. Peckham 24 2022, Saturday 14th May.
Exhibition Review: Anticamera - David Claerbout and Gábor Ösz, Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center, Budapest. 1000 Words Magazine, Issue 35, May
Essay in a magazine: To See Differently: An Essay on Niko Luoma’s Pictures. Published by Juliet Magazine (Italy)
2021
Single Author Book: To Be Determined: Photography and the Future, SPBH Editions, Milan & London.
Essay in a Museum Catalogue and Monograph: Takano Ryudai: Daily Photographs 1999-2021. National Museum of Art Osaka (NMAO), Japan, June 2021.
Essay in a Monographic Publication: Niko Luoma: For Each Minute Sixty Five Seconds. Essay in an Artists Monograph. Published by Hatje Cantz, June 2021
Essay on an online journal: Reflection on Pablo Lerma's 'It Doesn't Stop at Images'. Essay for Photomonitor, commissioned by Fotodok Utrecht.
Convenor of a Conference: The Photobook Sessions. A Collaboration between Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, and the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation.
Artwork in a Group Exhibition and Publication: Send Me An Image: From Postcards to Social Media. Curated by Kathrin Schönegg, C/O Berlin. Catalogue (Steidl)
2020
Essay in An Artists Book: Ryudai Takano - Kikuo. Libraryman. August 2020
Journal Article: Criticism on Demand: An Essay on Time and Process in Criticism. Over Journal, Issue 1. July
Interview: Curators Conversations #1 - 1000 Words Magazine.
2019
Panel Discussion: Collecting Photography Today: Art Market Budapest, 6th October.
Panel Discussion (Chair): On Blue and Photography. In Conversation with Tom Pope, Simone Mudde and Alexander Mourant. Copeland Gallery, 28th September.
Talk: The Photographic Boundary: Free Range Degree Show Exhibitions, Truman Brewery, London. 5th July. Organised by Arts University Bournemouth.
Interview: Generazione Critica, Modena.
Conference: Interruptions: disruptive discourses in screen, sound and photography. Organised by Victoria Ahrens. London College of Communication. 7th March.
Lecture: The Photograph as Experiment. Westminster Photography Forum, 6th March.
Conversation: Materials Conversation: Richard Paul and Duncan Wooldridge in Conversation. Radar Artists Residency Programme, Loughborough. 27th February.
2018
Panel Discussion: New Visions in Contemporary Photography. Part of the Brighton Photo Biennial 2018 Public Programme. Chaired by Ben Burbridge. University of Brighton, Wednesday 10th October. With Sarah Kember, Annabella Pollen and Francis Summers.
Guest Participant: Photobooks: Reset. C/O Berlin, 28-30 September. Organised by Self Publish, Be Happy, and Ann Christin Bertrand.
Interview: Duncan Wooldridge interviewed by Federica Chiocchetti, The Photocaptionist.
2017
Conference: Painting/Digital/Photography, QUAD Derby. Organised by Carl Robinson, University of Derby. 9 May.
Exhibition/Project: Swap Editions, No1: Ad Hoc, curated by Robin Tarbet. Launch at Castor Projects, 31 March.
2016
Book: What Is Photographic Research? Edited by Anne Williams and Duncan Wooldridge. UAL Photography Research Forum. Published by Camberwell Press. November 2016.
Symposium: Conceptual Photography as Experiment, in Systems > Networks - Photography and The Legacy of Conceptual Art. London College of Communication, Friday 3rd June.
Group Exhibition: AND PER SE AND, Galería Perdida & Fiona Jack & Aram Saroyan organized by Michael Ned Holte. Commonwealth & Council, Los Angeles.23 April - 28 May.
Group Exhibition: Less Photography, More Photographic, curated by Marta Barina. With Szilvia Bolla, Jure Kastelic, Reinis Lismanis, Scott Pattinson and Patrick Raimondi Taylor. Galleria SP3, Treviso. 13 February - 3 March.
2015
Symposium: Shadow Without Object. Organised by Bernd Behr and Duncan Wooldridge, Camberwell Photography and the CCW Graduate School. Chelsea College of Arts, London, 4th December. Conference co-convenor and speaker.
2014
Discussion: Beyond The Frame: Photography and Experimentation (Chair). Tate Modern, Starr Auditorium. London. Saturday 14th June.
Group Exhibition: The Postcard Is A Public Work of Art, X Marks The Bokship, London. January-February.
2013
Symposia: Repetition and Forgetting: Photography and The Delegation of Memory, in Returning to Berlin: Repetition and Photography. Motto, Berlin, August 11.
Curator, Commissioner and Respondent: Either/And. Organised by Ph Photography Research Group, commissioned by Media Space, National Media Museum.
2012
Symposia: Crisis and Anxiety in the Expanded Field of Photography. Expanded Photographies Symposium, Southampton Solent University, 25-26 October.
Group Exhibition: With An Apple I Will Astonish. Large Glass, London. October-January.
Group Exhibition: The Artist's Postcard Show. Spike Island, Bristol. April-June.
Publication: Jeremy Cooper, Artist's Postcards. London: Reaktion Books.
2011
Symposia: Dispersion and Phsyicality in Recent Photography. Design Physicalities Conference. Middlesex University. December.
Talk: Towards an idea of the 'Anti-photograph'. Ant!foto Festival, Dusseldorf. May.