David Campany Explained

David Campany (born 8 October 1967) is a British writer, curator, artist and educator, working mainly with photography.[1] He has written and edited books; contributed essays and reviews to other books, journals, magazines and websites; curated photography exhibitions; given public lectures, talks and conference papers; had exhibitions of his own work; and been a jury member for photography awards.[2] He has taught photographic theory and practice at the University of Westminster, London.[3] Campany is Managing Director of Programs at the International Center of Photography in New York City.[4]

His books have won the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Book Award,[5] Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography,[6] Silver Award from Deutscher Fotobuchpreis[7] and the J Dudley Johnston Award from the Royal Photographic Society.[8]

Campany is co-founder and co-editor of PA magazine.

Early life and education

Campany grew up in Essex.[9] [10] He gained a degree in film, video and photographic arts from the Polytechnic of Central London and an MA in photographic studies from the same school, by then renamed University of Westminster.

Life and work

In the 1990s Campany taught histories of art and graphic design at Winchester School of Art. From 2000 to 2004 he taught photographic theory and practice at Surrey Institute of Art and Design. He became a reader in photography at the University of Westminster in 2004.

Campany's book Gasoline (2013) consists of photographs of prints of petrol stations from 1945 to 1995 rescued from archives of several American newspapers that have been discarding their analogue print collections in favour of digital storage, and edited into a visual meta-narrative.[11] [12] Most of the photographs have been marked by the grease pencil of a newspaper's art director, outlining the crop required to illustrate a particular story, or stories, in the newspaper. They are often heavily retouched by hand, painting selectively over the image with white-out and pen. The second half of the book consists of pictures of the reverse of the prints, showing caption information, the name of the photographer and copyright holder, dates of publication, the newspaper, and sometimes clippings from the image's use in the paper, an archive of its own use which is lost in a digital archive. As well as being "elevated to icon in the visual language of 'America'", gas stations "are quite banal but when they make news it's because there's been a crime, an accident, a price rise or a geopolitical crisis" which "makes the gas station a revealing measure of a society over the second half of the 20th century".[13] The book describes "America's relationship with the car, with travel, with consumption, with the rest of the world" and can also be read as "an allegory about news photography. Or a minor history of car design, or vernacular architecture, or street graphics, or outfits worn by pump attendants. All of the above."[14] [15]

Walker Evans: the Magazine Work (2014), edited and with "an exhaustive essay"[16] by Campany, explores the period of Evans's photographic career at Fortune and other magazines, a period that has gone largely unnoticed, with Evans[17] "lauded for every part of his creative career except for his magazine work." Krystal Grow, writing in Time, praised Campany's book as "Exhaustively researched and meticulously edited".

In The Open Road: Photography & the American Road Trip (2014)[18] Campany introduces the road trip as a photographic genre, the first book to do so. It includes writing by Campany and photographs by Robert Frank (from The Americans), Ed Ruscha, Inge Morath (from The Road to Reno), Garry Winogrand, William Eggleston, Lee Friedlander, Joel Meyerowitz, Jacob Holdt (from American Pictures), Stephen Shore, Bernard Plossu, Victor Burgin (from US 77), Joel Sternfeld, Shin'ya Fujiwara, Alec Soth (from Sleeping by the Mississippi), Todd Hido, Ryan McGinley, Justine Kurland, and Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs (from The Great Unreal).[19] [20]

Campany co-founded and co-edits PA magazine with Cristina Bechtler. Published since 2008, in each issue an artist is invited to select and sequence their own work and select a second artist who does the same, possibly with a dialogue about their practice.

As of March 2020 he was Managing Director of Programs at the International Center of Photography in New York City.[4]

Personal life

As of October 2013 he lived in north London with his wife, Polly Braden, and two daughters. The couple have since split up and Braden is a single parent.[21]

Publications

Books of work by Campany

Books with one other

Books with contributions by Campany

PA magazine

Awards

Exhibitions

Exhibitions curated by Campany

Exhibitions by Campany as artist

Solo exhibitions

Exhibitions with others

Group exhibitions

Television appearances

Notes

  1. News: Pump action: Why images of gas stations capture all things American. 14 September 2013 . 14 March 2015 . Holly . Williams . .
  2. Web site: Chronology. 13 March 2015 . David Campany .
  3. Web site: Dr David Campany: Reader in Photography. 11 March 2015 . .
  4. Web site: 2021-11-28. Photography from Isolation to Communication. 30 March 2020. International Center of Photography.
  5. Web site: Past Moving Image Winners . 11 March 2015 . Kraszna-Krausz Foundation . https://web.archive.org/web/20150316070731/http://www.kraszna-krausz.org.uk/kraszna-krausz-foundation-book-awards/2012-2/moving-image/ . 16 March 2015 . dead .
  6. Web site: Infinity Awards 2012. 11 March 2015 . .
  7. Web site: Die Sieger 2015 . 11 March 2015 . Deutscher Fotobuchpreis . https://web.archive.org/web/20150222151115/http://www.deutscher-fotobuchpreis.de/html/sieger.htm . 22 February 2015 . dead .
  8. Web site: RPS Awards 2014 . 10 September 2014 . 11 March 2015 . . 11 September 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140911213011/http://www.rps.org/news/2014/september/rps-awards-2014 . dead .
  9. Web site: David Campany: the Open Road. 21 October 2014 . 15 March 2015 . .
  10. Web site: Formidable Family Braden-Campany. 14 March 2015 . Pirouette .
  11. 50 Years of Gas Station Photos Pump Out Premium Americana. 6 December 2013 . 15 March 2015 . Rebecca . Horne . .
  12. News: 'Gasoline': The end of oil's innocence . . 31 July 2018.
  13. Fueling the American Dream. https://web.archive.org/web/20131021180345/http://lightbox.time.com/2013/10/21/fueling-the-american-dream/#1 . dead . 21 October 2013 . Jeffrey . Ladd . 21 October 2013 . 15 March 2015 . .
  14. News: Pit stop photography: take a road trip to America's vintage gas stations. 26 September 2013 . 14 March 2015 . Sean . O'Hagan . Sean O'Hagan (journalist) . .
  15. News: Fill up on gas station memories. 21 October 2013 . 14 March 2015 . Phil . Coomes . .
  16. News: Life, Time and Fortune: how Walker Evans mastered magazine photography. 16 May 2014 . 15 March 2015 . Sean . O'Hagan . Sean O'Hagan (journalist) . .
  17. Walker Evans: A Rebel Rises at Fortune. https://web.archive.org/web/20140723085123/http://life.time.com/culture/walker-evans-a-rebel-rises-at-fortune/#1 . dead . 23 July 2014 . Krystal . Grow . 15 March 2015 . .
  18. Go on an American Road Trip with the World's Greatest Photographers. https://web.archive.org/web/20140926065238/http://lightbox.time.com/2014/09/24/road-trip-america-photobook/#1 . dead . 26 September 2014 . Myles . Little . 24 September 2014 . 15 March 2015 . .
  19. News: A Car, a Camera and the Open Road. 15 September 2014 . 15 March 2015 . John . Leland . .
  20. News: The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip review – a survey of photographers' journeys . 30 November 2014 . 15 March 2015 . Sean . O'Hagan . Sean O'Hagan (journalist) . .
  21. Web site: 2021-11-27. 'I'd like to think my daughter is proud': the life of single parents – in pictures. 5 June 2021. The Guardian.
  22. Web site: Art and Photography: Phaidon, 2003. 16 March 2015 . David Campany .
  23. News: 2021-11-27. Olympic legacy: photographing the Lea Valley – in pictures. The Guardian. 7 December 2016. 0261-3077.
  24. A copy of Campany's essay is available here within the Hackelbury website
  25. News: The And/Or Book Awards 2009. 13 March 2015 . .
  26. News: The And/Or Book Awards 2009. 13 March 2015 . .
  27. Web site: Hannah Collins. Historia en curso. 19 November 2009 . 13 March 2015 . Fundación La Caixa .
  28. Web site: Exposición. 13 March 2015 . .
  29. Web site: Anonymes: L'Amérique sans nom : photographie et cinéma . 13 March 2015 . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150320062418/http://www.le-bal.fr/fr/mg/agenda/bonjour-tout-le-monde/ . 20 March 2015 . dmy-all .
  30. Web site: Jerwood Encounters: This Must Be the Place . 13 March 2015 . Jerwood Visual Arts . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150402125500/http://jerwoodvisualarts.org/3096/Jerwood-Encounters-This-Must-Be-The-Place/99 . 2 April 2015 . dmy-all .
  31. Web site: Mark Neville – Deeds Not Words . 13 March 2015 . . 6 January 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170106172159/http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/mark-neville-deeds-not-words-4 . dead .
  32. Web site: Victor Burgin: On Paper. 13 March 2015 . Richard Saltoun .
  33. Web site: Victor Burgin: On Paper. 13 March 2015 . Richard Saltoun .
  34. Web site: P3 Exhibitions / Past / 2013. 13 March 2015 . Ambika P3 .
  35. Web site: Lewis Baltz: Common Objects . 13 March 2015 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20150320063301/http://www.le-bal.fr/fr/mh/les-expositions/lewis-baltz/ . 20 March 2015 . dead .
  36. Web site: Krakow Photomonth Festival: Walker Evans: The Magazine Work. 13 March 2015 . .
  37. Web site: Walker Evans – Magazinewerk . 13 March 2015 . Pf . 9 September 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210909085727/https://pf.nl/agenda/walker-evans-magazinewerk/ . dead .
  38. Web site: Walker Evans, the magazine work . 1 February 2015 . 13 March 2015 . Pôle Image Haute-Normandie . 11 March 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160311070939/http://poleimagehn.com/photographie/actualites-photographie/item/walker-evansthe-magazine-work . dead .
  39. Web site: A Handful of Dust – From the Cosmic to the Domestic . 23 October 2015 . . 18 October 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151018070626/http://en.le-bal.com/fr/mh/les-expositions/a-handful-of-dust/ . dead .
  40. Web site: A Handful of Dust: Photography after Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. 17 October 2017 . .
  41. News: Slain dictators and cities under attack: the photographers telling stories through dust. 8 June 2017 . 17 October 2017 . Sean . O'Hagan . Sean O'Hagan (journalist) . . London .
  42. Web site: The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip: Curated by David Campany and Denise Wolff. 11 March 2016 . .
  43. Web site: Previous exhibitions at London Gallery West . 11 March 2015 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20130719011424/http://www.westminster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/182749/LGW.pdf . 19 July 2013 . dead .
  44. Web site: Photomonth in Krakow – 2011: Lee Cluderay. 13 March 2015 . Kracow Photomonth .
  45. Web site: London Street Photography Festival Launches Celebrating the Time-Honoured Genre. 13 March 2015 . ArtDaily .
  46. News: In Pictures: London Street Photography Festival. 2 July 2011 . 13 March 2015 . .
  47. News: Photograph of the Day. https://web.archive.org/web/20090717033738/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/lucydavies/100001354/photograph-of-the-day/ . dead . 17 July 2009 . Lucy . Davies . 13 July 2009 . 13 March 2015 . .
  48. Web site: Real Estate Projects. 13 March 2015 . B+B .
  49. Web site: Photomonth in Krakow – 2010: Nothing is in the Place – Curatorial Project by Jason Evans. 13 March 2015 . Kracow Photomonth .
  50. Web site: Imagine: Season 20, Episode 5: The Many Lives of William Klein. 13 March 2015 . .