Self Portrait on the highest point of Mount Fuji.
Born York,1967,Richard Whitehead is an award winning Documentary Fine Art Photographer, editor and educator, resident in the UK.
Whitehead has worked, collaborated and exhibited with many prestigious newspapers, magazines, museums & galleries, charities, foundations and book publishers including among others:The Malton Gazette and Herald,The Scarborough Evening News;The Stephen Joseph Theatre;The Sheffield Telegraph;The Guardian;Miss London;The Mail on Sunday; IPC Magazines;Vogue France;The New York Times; Trouw; Volkskrant; Het Parool; Raleigh International; Granta Magazine;Viking Books;Sheffield Museum;Yorkshire Arts;West Midlands Arts; the MAC Gallery;Birmingham Museum & Library;The Cartoons Art Trust;The Royal Photographic Society; & The National Portrait Gallery.
Whitehead’s photo series investigate social issues and subjects related to identity, place, liminality and change. He chooses to work and research on projects in depth. Whitehead currently works and has worked both locally and internationally on assignment as well as for personal projects.
Whitehead’s subjective approach is to both recreate the world as in a document, while at the same time creating a fake world that exists within the context of the image/series/book/exhibition and within the mind of the viewer. In this process his work critically observes and questions the complexity and relationship of the human condition and the politics and representation in Photography.
All photography is an interpretation of the world, but it is arguably also in two parallel worlds at once, expressing a liminality, neither Art nor Documentary.
From 2017 Whitehead has taught at the University of Northampton (UON) and leads the Photography Programme.
He is currently studying for a PhD by practice with UON, researching into colour imaging of shoemaking and shoemakers in Northampton and Northamptonshire.
Publication/Exhibition
Solo Exhibitions
2013-Folio Gallery, Hartlepool, ‘Oukaranman-A Riot of Cherry Blossoms’
1998-The 162 Gallery, Brick Lane, London, ‘Portraits of Brick Lane’
1997-2000-Yorkshire Arts, Dewsbury, ‘A Fishy Business’
1993-Birmingham Central Library, ‘Birmingham Accents’
1992-The Snowhill Centre, Birmingham, ‘Snowhill Commission’
Selected Group Exhibitions
2009-Chethams Library, Manchester, ‘Two Budgies on a Plank’
2007-The Peoples Museum, Manchester, ‘From Here to There’
2000-Trouw Dagblad, Amsterdam, ’The City’
2000-Fotografen Avond Group Show, Amsterdam.
2000 -Royal Photographic Society,Bath,143rd Print Exhibition(Touring)
1999-Royal Photographic Society, Bath, 142nd Print Exhibition (Touring) Bronze Medal
1998- National Portrait Gallery, London,The John Kobal Portrait Award (Touring)
1998-The Slaughterhouse Gallery, London, ‘Animal Pride’ (in conjunction with the Linda McCartney trust)
1998-Bonner Road Studios, The Whitechapel Open, ‘Living in The Present’
1995-Site Gallery , Sheffield, ‘Christmas Show’
1994-West Midlands Arts, Birmingham, ‘Portfolio’
1992-The Bond Gallery, Birmingham, ‘Contemporary Midlands Photographers’
Selected Publications
Trouw Dagblad 1998-2003
Het Parool 1999-2003
Cobouw 1999-2002
The Mail on Sunday 1995-1998
IPC Magazines
The Sheffield Telegraph 1992-1994
Collections
The Cartoon Arts Trust
The National Portrait Gallery http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp10641/richard-whitehead?role=art
The Heritage Collection, Filey http://www.exploringfileyspast.co.uk/
Sheffield City Museum & Archive
Birmingham Museum & Archive http://www.bmag.org.uk/
Private Collections
Commissions/Awards
The Cartoon Arts Trust (1999)
The Royal photographic Society (RPS) 142nd Annual Print Exhibition competition 1998, (Bronze Medal)
Skibereen Cartoon Festival (1998 & 1999)
Birkenhead Cartoon Festival (1998)
John Kobal Portrait Award Exhibitor (1997)
Sheffield City Council, ‘Stone City’(1995)
Yorkshire Arts, Research Grant, Digital Printing (1995)
Birmingham DTI, Commission (1994)
West Midlands Arts, Grant (1994)
Birmingham City Council, ‘Birmingham Accents’ (1993)
Shape Housing Association, ‘The Snowhill Centre’ (1993)
Raleigh International (Zimbabwe 1993 & Mongolia 2000)
Birmingham TUC ‘Work’ competition (1992)-First prize
Technical Advisor/Contractor
Rut Blees Luxemburg: London A Modern Project
Haley Morris-Cafiero: Bouyant Force
Photographs held in the National Portrait Gallery
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp10641/richard-whitehead