Paul Hart (photographer) explained

Paul Hart (born 1961) is a British landscape photographer.^[1] His work “explores our relationship with the landscape, in both a humanistic and socio-historical sense”.^[2] His books include Truncated (2009), Farmed (2016), Drained (2018) and Reclaimed (2020), all published by Dewi Lewis.^[3] In 2018 he was awarded the inaugural Wolf Suschitzky Photography Prize (UK) by the Austrian Cultural Forum, London.^[4]

Life and work

Hart studied art and design at Lincoln College of Art in 1984 and graduated from Trent Polytechnic with a BA Hons in Photography in 1988.^[2] He currently lives in Lincolnshire, England.^[2] He works solely with the black and white analogue process, using large format and medium format film cameras,^[2] processing and printing all work in his own darkroom. Between 2005 and 2008 Hart produced a series of photographs which explored the pine forest plantations of the Ladybower Reservoir in the Peak District National Park, resulting in the series and book Truncated.^[5] In 2009 he began photographing the landscape of East Anglia and made a series of photographs in The Fens.^[6] This initiated a ten-year project which resulted in a three-part series on the region: Farmed (2009–15), Drained (2016–17) and Reclaimed (2018–19).^[7]

Publications

Publications by Hart

• Truncated. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2009. . With an introduction by Gerry Badger.
• Farmed. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2016. . With an introduction by Collier Brown. First edition, 2016; second edition, 2018.
• Drained. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2018. . With an introduction by Francis Hodgson. First edition, 2018; second edition, 2020.
• Reclaimed. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2020. . With an introduction by Isabelle Bonnet in French and with English translation.

Publications with contributions by Hart

• Chris Dickie. Photo Projects: Plan and Publish Your Photography – In Print and on the Internet. London: Argentum, 2006. .
• Brooks Jensen. Looking at Images: A Deeper Look at Selected Photographs Published in LensWork and LensWork Extended. Anacortes, WA: LensWork, 2014. .
• Martin Barnes. Into the Woods: Trees in Photography. London: Victoria and Albert Museum/Thames & Hudson, 2019. .
• Gerry Badger. Another Country: British Documentary Photography since 1945. London: Thames & Hudson; Bristol: Martin Parr Foundation, 2022. .

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

• Poetry of Place, Print Sales Gallery, The Photographers' Gallery, London, 2018^{[8] [9] [10]}
• Print Sales Gallery, The Photographers' Gallery, London, 2019^[11]
• Edgelands, Fen Ditton Gallery, Cambridge, UK, 2020^{[7] [12]}

Group exhibitions

• Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition, London, 2012^[13]
• Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition, London, 2018^[14]
• Austrian Cultural Forum, London, Wolf Suschitzky Photography Prize, 2019^[4]
• Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition, London, 2019^[15]

Awards

• 2018/19: Wolf Suschitzky Photo Prize, Austrian Cultural Forum, London and Vienna. UK Winner for Farmed and Drained.^[16]

Collections

• Victoria and Albert Museum: 1 print (as of October 2020)^[1]

Notes and References

1. Web site: V&A Search the Collections/Photographs – Lyn Way . vam.ac.uk . October 13, 2020.
2. Web site: Paul . Hart . Paul Hart Biography . paulhartphotography.com . October 12, 2020.
3. Web site: 2020-10-16. Paul Hart : Reclaimed. 13 April 2020. The Eye of Photography Magazine.
4. Web site: Wolf Suschitzky Photography Prize Exhibition . Austrian Cultural Forum . October 12, 2020.
5. Roberts . Elizabeth . How the Land Lies . Black and White Photography Magazine . July 14, 2016 . 191 . July 2016 . 1473-2467.
6. Calder . Tracy . On Show . Black and White Photography Magazine . October 14, 2019 . 233 . Autumn . 1473-2467.
7. Web site: Phil Coombes . In Pictures – The Beauty of the Fens . BBC . October 12, 2020.
8. Web site: 2020-10-16. Paul Hart's poetic landscapes. 5 January 2018. The Eye of Photography Magazine.
9. Web site: 2020-10-16. Poetry of Place: Paul Hart’s Landscapes. 27 November 2017. The Photographers' Gallery.
10. Web site: Alexander. Strecker. 2020-10-16. Poetry of Place: Rooted in the English Landscape – Photographs by Paul Hart: Review by Alexander Strecker. LensCulture.
11. Web site: 2020-10-16. Paul Hart. 8 August 2019. Wall Street International.
12. Web site: Humanity and the Land . . October 12, 2020.
13. Book: Summer Exhibition 2012 list of works. June 14, 2012 . Royal Academy of Arts . London . 978-1-9075334-9-5.
14. Web site: RA Summer Exhibition 2018 . October 12, 2020. Royal Academy of Arts.
15. Web site: RA Summer Exhibition 2019 . October 12, 2020. Royal Academy of Arts.
16. Segal-Hamilton . Rachel . Respectful approach lands prize win . The RPS Journal . December 1, 2018 . 160 . 1468-8670.