Steven Barritt

Course Leader, BA Photography

Steven Barritt is an artist, photographer and lecturer based in Cornwall. His photographic practice is focused on the idea of ambiguity and the slippage between the photograph and truth, surface and meaning. Starting from a conceptual engagement with research, the work often entails carefully constructed images that explore recurring themes of mythologising, performance, human relations, human endeavour, science and philosophy.

Employing different approaches and aesthetic strategies his practice explores our understanding of the world around us and the relationship between the real and the photographed representation. The transformative and performative nature of photography provides a framework for tactile experimentation, visualisation and considered assembly of images that play with ways of representing complex or problematic issues.

His work has been presented in varied publications and has been shown both nationally and internationally at institutions, exhibitions and festivals such as The National Portrait Gallery, The Photographers Gallery, The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Recontre D’Arles, Voies Off, FORMAT, Riga Photo Month as well as diverse group shows and solo exhibitions.

Barritt joined Falmouth University in 2021 as the course leader for BA Photography after more than 11 years teaching in HE.

External Links

Contact details

Email steven.barritt@falmouth.ac.uk
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    Qualifications

    Qualifications

    Year Qualification Awarding body
    2010 MA Photography Middlesex University

    Honors and awards

    Year Description
    2019

    3rd Place Winner — LensCulture Art Photography Award
    2019

    Finalist — The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2019
    2018

    Winner — Portrait of Britain, BJP
    2018

    Finalist — Voies Off Awards
    2016

    Best Portfolio — Format Festival, Derby
    2010

    Finalist — Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize
    2010

    Finalist — Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed, The Photographers Gallery
    2009

    Finalist — Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize

    Research Interests

    Research interests and expertise

    • Representation and reality in photography and how meaning is generated through constructed imagery and its relationship with reality.
    • Self-representation and the exploration of personality and psyche through portraiture and self-portraiture.
    • Narrative and the construction of meaning in photography, and it's interrelationships with art, cinema, drama and literature.
    • Philosophical, psychological and anthropological approaches to understanding narrative and its relationship to morality, ethics and behaviour i.e. Jungian notions of the collective unconscious, storytelling, mythology and religion.
    • Ideas of inherited seeing and the development of visual language and the role of technology in mediating our experience of the visual world, and the ethical and psychological consequences of digital narcissism.
    • The intersection of art with STEM subjects and how this may be leveraged for greater engagement within education.

    Professional Engagement

    Independent professional practice

    Selected exhibitions:

    • “Born From Sea Foam” — Off Bratislava Festival, Bratislava: Nov 2020
    • “LensCulture Discoveries” — Galerie Joseph, Paris: Nov 2019
    • “COSMOS” — Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford: Jul 2019
    • "The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2019" — Piano Nobile, London: May 2019
    • "To The Moon And Back" — South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell: May 2019
    • "VeniceLands ArtPrize" — Treveso, Italy: Apr 2019
    • “The Cosmic Sublime” — The Pie Factory, Margate: Apr 2019
    • “S.E.L.F” — Small Step, Liverpool: Apr 2019
    • “Forever Now” — FORMAT International Festival — Derby: Mar 2019
    • “Portrait of Britain” — Nationwide: Sep 2018
    • “BYOP” — Recontres D’Arles, Arles: Jul 2018
    • “Voies Off Awards” — Voies Off Festival, Arles: Jul 2018
    • “Coincident” — PremArts, Berlin: Jun 2018
    • “New Chic” — Riga Photo Month, Riga: May 2018
    • “Myth & Lore” — Styx, London: Jan 2017
    • “Seeds” — Vortegern Gallery, Margate: Jun 2016
    • “Of The Afternoon” — The Power Station Gallery, London: Nov 2013
    • “The Bigger Picture” — The Underground Gallery, London: Feb 2013
    • "The World in London" — Victoria Park & Park House, London: Jul 2012
    • "Dust and Scratches" — Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow: Feb 2012
    • "Human/ Nature" — Ketchum–Pleon, London: Sep 2011
    • Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 — The National Portrait Gallery, London Nov 2010
    • Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed 2010 — The Photographers Gallery, London: May 2010
    • Sunday Times Style : Greatest Fashion Show On Earth — Westfield Shopping Centre, London: Mar 2010
    • On|Off Fashion week — Victoria House, London: Feb 2010
    • Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2009 — National Portrait Gallery, London: Nov 2009

    Engagement with professional associations and societies

    Member of Association of Photography in Higher Education.