John Riddy was born in the United Kingdom in 1959. He
studied Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art and began working
with Frith Street Gallery (London) in 1993.

 

One of the most distinctive voices in British contemporary
photography, John Riddy has consistently worked in series,
using methods and formats that allow for silent and complex
descriptions. His work echoes that of the medium’s earliest
practitioners, exploiting still images to render the everyday
as both factual and transcendent. The particularities of place
and the urban environment have been constant subjects,
whilst the starting point for many of his series has been the
relationship between photography and the history of art and
architecture.Typically eclectic examples are the
autobiography of John Ruskin, the woodblock prints of
Hokusai and the photographs of Gustave le Gray. Choices
about format, materials and technique have been intrinsic to
each series and the physical and formal qualities of the final
print of paramount importance.

 

A survey exhibition John Riddy: Photographs was held at the
De Pont Museum in 2019. Solo exhibitions and publications
include John Riddy at Camden Arts Centre (2000), Views from
Shin-Fuji at the Victoria and Albert Museum (2006), Of
Things Placed (2015), Palermo (2013), Low Relief (2009),
Praeterita (2000) and Rome (1999).
Recent Group Exhibitions include Beyond Documentary –
Museum of London (2018); Sleepless – Belvedere 21er Haus,
Vienna (2015); Ruin Lust – Tate, (2014); Obiettivi Obiettivita –
Officine Fotografiche, Rome (2012); Revealed – Whitechapel
Gallery, London (2011); Romantics – Tate, (2010); Of People
and Places – UMASS, Amherst (2008) and Utopia – Museu
Berardo Lisbon (2008).

 

John Riddy: Photographs, a monograph presenting all of
Riddy’s major series was published by Steidl in 2019.

 

His work is held in numerous permanent collections
including Tate, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The
Stedelijk, The Art Institute of Chicago, De Pont, The Rubell
Family Collection, The British Council Collection and The
Art’s Council of Great Britain.

 

Courtesy of the artist’s website.