Born in November 1979 in Aldershot, UK.
I grew up in Northumberland, and following periods in Devon and Newcastle, I've lived in Reading since 2006.
I'm an artist working with photography – often double-exposure photography – as well as film, video, text, and found objects. I make artwork about my experience of and relationship to place, land, and the natural world. I often respond to places in the context of particular people whose life and/or work is associated with those places. Each of my works is titled with a grid reference giving the location where it was made.
My work has been the subject of five solo exhibitions since 2017, and my practice has been funded by three grants from Arts Council England, as well as by grants from other funding bodies. My artworks are held in over 30 private collections in the UK, the USA, and Canada.
Further information about my various projects can be found here. Between 2016 and 2020 I was mostly working on a project funded by Arts Council England called everything seemed to be listening, more about which can be found here.
The double-exposure images I make are created in the field using the camera itself. Apart from some minor adjustment of contrast levels on some pictures, the resulting images are not subject to any digital alteration or manipulation. That is to say, I don't use Photoshop or similar in my practice, and have no ability or interest in doing so.
Aside from transporting artworks to and from galleries, I do not use a car. I get around by bicycle, on foot and by public transport. (Other things I do not own or use include 'smartphones', sunglasses and wheelie suitcases.)
You can purchase editioned prints of my work in the online shop. Please contact me if you wish to purchase limited edition prints of any of my other images. All of my prints are produced in strictly limited editions of just three. You can also buy prints here, but at a significantly greater cost than if you contact me directly.
I'm also a lecturer in film studies at the University of Reading, with a record of publications in the fields of film, photography, art, literature, theatre and music. These days my research interests are increasingly concerned with social and critical theory, psychoanalysis, and mysticism; especially the work of Norman O. Brown, Herbert Marcuse, Terence McKenna, and Carl Jung.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
July-Aug 2022: New and Selected Work, The Pond Gallery, Snape Maltings, Suffolk
July-Aug 2021: New Work, The Pond Gallery, Snape Maltings, Suffolk
Oct-Nov 2020: everything seemed to be listening (part three - all new work), The Old Fire Station, Oxford
Sep-Oct 2018: everything seemed to be listening (part two - all new work), Fine Foundation Gallery, Swanage
June 2017: everything seemed to be listening, Rye Creative Centre, Rye, East Sussex
GRANTS/AWARDS:
September 2019: Culture Fund Grant awarded by Oxford City Council - £1k.
August 2019: Project Grant awarded by Arts Council England - £13k.
May 2018: Project Grant awarded by Arts Council England - £11k.
May 2018: Grant awarded by the Fine Family Foundation - £1k.
November 2016: Grant for the Arts awarded by Arts Council England - £15k.
September 2006: Postgraduate Research Studentship awarded by University of Reading - £37k + fees.
EDUCATION:
PhD in Film and Visual Art - University of Reading, 2011.
MA (Distinction) Modern and Contemporary Literature and Film - University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2006.
BA (Hons) Media Arts - University of Plymouth, 2003.
PUBLICATIONS:
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles:
Book Chapters:
Book Reviews:
Photographic publications:
Foster, D. and G. Dickinson (2020), towards a premise (Inside The Outside zine vol. 4) (photography and poetry).
Foster, D. (2015), Under the Transit of Saturn (Reading: Detopia Books). ISBN: 978-0-9576736-2-5.
Foster, D. (2015), Detopia: Volume Two (Reading: Detopia Books). ISBN: 978-0-9576736-1-8.
Foster, D. (2013), Detopia: Volume One (Reading: Detopia Books). ISBN: 978-0-9576736-0-1.
TEACHING:
2021 – present: Lecturer in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading.
2017 – 2021: Sessional Lecturer in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading.
2011 – 2012: Course Tutor in Film Studies, Workers' Educational Association.
2007 – 2010: Sessional Lecturer in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading.
ARTIST RESIDENCIES:
April 2022: Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking, Gloucestershire, UK.
July 2018: Durlston Country Park and National Nature Reserve, Dorset, UK.
April 2012 - June 2012: Mount Tremper Arts, Mount Tremper, NY, USA.
FEATURES ON MY WORK:
June 2020: Featured Photographer in On Landscape issue 208
October 2017: everything seemed to be listening featured on Inside the Outside.
January 2012: Detopia featured in Artvehicle issue 60.
GROUP SHOWS and WORK IN GALLERIES:
Five works from everything seemed to be listening on show at L'Artishe Gallery, Dorset, 2018
Eight works from everything seemed to be listening on show at Rye Art Gallery, East Sussex, 2017-18
Three works from everything seemed to be listening on show at Avocet Gallery, East Sussex, 2017-18
Spectrum, PS Mirabel, Manchester, 2016
Sixty, Lubomirov / Angus-Hughes, London, 2016
COLLECTIONS:
My work is held in over thirty private collections in the UK, the USA. and Canada.
TALKS, WORKSHOPS, EVENTS:
September 2018: Photography workshops with A-level photography students and DoE scheme participants.
September 2018: In conversation with David Southwell, Durlston Country Park, Dorset.
September 2018: Conscious Photography Workshop, Durlston Country Park, Dorset.
June 2017: A walk and talk around Nash Country: a guided 'photowalk' and lecture in Rye and Iden, East Sussex.
June 2017: In conversation with Dave McKean, Rye Creative Centre, Rye, East Sussex.
June 2017: 'On the Spirit of Nash Country' - a talk given at Rye Creative Centre, Rye, East Sussex.