Dr Benedict Burbridge

Biography

Dr. Ben Burbridge holds degrees in Art History from the University of Sussex (B.A. Hons., M.A.) and The Courtauld Institute of Art (Ph.D.). From 2008, he held the position of Visiting Lecturer at The Courtauld Institute, before joining the University of Sussex as a Lecturer in 2011.

Since 2003, he has worked with the visual arts organization Photoworks, most recently as Programme Curator and the Co-Editor of Photoworks magazine. Here he has been involved with the commissioning and production of a wide range of photographic projects, publications and exhibitions.

Recently curated exhibitions include We Are Witnessing the Dawn of an Unknown Science (Permanent Gallery, Brighton, 2007); No Passaran! Robert Capa and the Spanish Civil War (Charleston Farmhouse Gallery, Firle, 2007); The Daily Nice Take Away (Kunsthaus, Essen, 2010); and the 2012 Brighton Photo Biennial, Agents of Change: Photography and the Politics of Space. He is currently working on an exhibition examining the 'traffic' of early scientific photography, to be shown at Media Space in London's Science Museum in spring 2014.

Dr. Burbridge is the co-founder of Ph, an AHRC-funded network of more than thirty early career academics working with photography. Ph are currently acting as Commissioning Editors of Either/And, a year-long web-based project developed by the National Media Museum as a space to discuss key issues in contemporary media. Content from Either/And will be published as a book in Autumn 2013. 

Dr. Burbridge works on the intersection of photography, art and politics, specialising in the contemporary period. He is interested in dialogues between current and historical practices, and photography’s artistic and instrumental applications. Much of his work examines how the uses made of photography are implicated in wider social, cultural and political transformations, and the relationship between technology and the production and dissemination of images.

He has worked extensively on photography as contemporary art, with a particular interest in how digital culture impacts upon the production and understanding of art photograpy. Further interests include photography and the museum, contemporary art and politics, and curating as a critical practice.

Dr. Burbridge lectures on the history and theory of photography and post-war art in Europe and America. He teaches the second year Special Period course 'Art After 1945'; the final year Art in Context course 'Art and Politics in Britain, 1979-The Present'; and the final year Topic course 'Photography in Context'.

Student Consultation

Second Semester Office Hours:

Thursday 10.00-11.00 & Friday 9.00-10.00

Burbridge, Benedict (2014) Revelations: experiments in photography. MACK/Media Space, London.

Burbridge, Benedict (2013) The ghost of media past and present. In: The machine and the ghost: technology and spiritualism in nineteenth to twenty-first century art and culture. Machester University Press, Manchester. (In Press)

Burbridge, Benedict (2013) Art photography at the end of temporality. Philosophy of Photography, 3 (4). pp. 121-139. ISSN 2040-3682

Burbridge, Benedict and Davies, Celia (2012) Agents of change: photography and the politics of space. Photoworks (19). Photoworks, Brighton. ISBN 9781903796368

Burbridge, Ben (2011) Ghosts in the machine. Photoworks (17). pp. 78-79. ISSN 9781903796344

Burbridge, Benedict (2011) Riot scene: photography and protest. Grafik (192). pp. 28-31. ISSN 977147975304992

Burbridge, Ben (2011) Interview with Mike Mandel. Ph: The Photography Resaerch Network.

Burbridge, Ben (2011) Interview with Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin. Ph: The Photography Research Network .

Burbridge, Ben (2011) Such a mercurial moment: Charlotte Cotton in conversation with Ben Burbridge. Immediations, 2 (4). pp. 147-162. ISSN 1742-7444

Burbridge, Benedict (2010) Exacting photography: self-imaging and its frustration in contemporary art photography. Rebus (5).

Burbridge, Benedict (2009) Profile: Peter Kennard. Grafik (179). pp. 38-47. ISSN 9771479753032

Burbridge, Benedict (2009) A question of value. In: MAP. University College of the Creative Arts, London, pp. 8-11.

Burbridge, Benedict (2008) Futile metaphors: contemporary art and the bomb. Photoworks (10). pp. 44-49. ISSN 9771742165005