In April 2021, Craig Easton was awarded the prestigious title of Photographer of the Year at the SONY World Photography Awards, his work is deeply rooted in the documentary tradition. He shoots long-term projects exploring issues around social policy, identity and a sense of place.
Craig mixes portraiture, landscape and reportage approaches to storytelling, often working collaboratively with others to incorporate words, pictures and audio in a research-based practice that weaves a narrative between contemporary experience and history.
Easton’s photographs are published and exhibited around the world and held in private collections and museum archives internationally.
As the creator of the highly acclaimed SIXTEEN project, Easton invited a team of 16 leading contemporary photographers to work with nearly 200 sixteen-year-olds from right across the UK resulting in over 20 exhibitions (including the last Northern Eye Fringe) seen by an audience of 350,000 throughout 2019 and early 2020.
FISHERWOMEN - a long form project celebrating the traditional and contemporary role of women in the fishing industry was published as a limited edition large format portfolio by Ten O’clock Books in 2020. Exhibitions of that work continue to tour throughout the UK and in the USA.
Easton’s most recent work BANK TOP, examines the representation and misrepresentation of northern communities by the national media. By focussing on one tight knit community in Blackburn, Lancashire - described by BBC Panorama as ‘the most segregated town in Britain’, it questions the prevailing narrative of culture wars and segregation.
The work – all made on large format analogue 10x8 film - questions the divisive notion of cultural, ethnic and social segregation in a highly charged political landscape and examines the legacy of contemporary and colonial foreign policy, immigration and the fallout from the de-industrialisation and neglect of the north of England.
THATCHER’S CHILDREN – is an ongoing, long-form documentary series examining how successive governments’ social policies have impacted and been experienced by one extended family over three decades and exploring the inter-generational aspect of chronic poverty. First published by The Independent in the UK and by Liberation in Paris in ’92, the long form project was shown for the first time in The Guardian Weekend in November 2020. Working in collaboration with writer Jack Shenker, we are preparing a book and exhibitions in 2021.
Selected Awards include:
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Photographer of the Year: Sony World Photography Awards 2021
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FC Barcelona Photo Award 2017
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Sony World Photography Awards 2017
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Winner, Travel Photographer of the Year Portfolio Award 2016/17
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Overall Winner, Worldwide Travel Photographer of the Year 2012/13
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Association of Photographers Awards 2012/2016/2017
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Winner, Travel Photographer of the Year, ‘Homeland’ Category, 2009
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Two Honour of Distinction & four Honourable Mention, International Colour Awards 2014/2016
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National Portrait Gallery, London, Taylor Wessing Awards 2017
www.craigeaston.com
