Professor David Chandler

Research interests

My researchevolves from collaborative relationships with contemporary photographers andartists that are developed over time. These relationships generate a dialoguethrough which I lend support, curatorial advice and a critical perspective onthe artist’s work, a process that most often results in a piece of writing for apublication, exhibition or event, or in some cases for all of these things. Importantlyfor me, there is no binding thematic thread to this research. The artists andthe work I develop with them represent a wide range of practices and the collaborativeprocess demands that our shared interests are discursive, that ideas open outfrom our discussions and meetings. However, certain subjects do recur acrossthis work and provide something of a loose framework for my research ­– landscape,the idea of place, memory and journeying are among them – and these subjectsare contextualised by the key research themes of the Photography Research Grouphere at Plymouth: for example, Photography and Landscape, Photography and theBook, Interdisciplinary Practices, Photography and Writing.

My ownwriting has a primary interpretive function but also, in almost every case,aims to build a broader cultural and historical context for the artist’s work.In general the essays are not written specifically for a research community andare often commissioned by a public institution or a publisher; so, combining asense of critical rigour with the demands of a broad audience is usually animportant balance to strike. Over the years in doing this I have developed aninterest in writing that does not comply with more formal academic approaches butcombines critical analysis, and elements of art and cultural history, with moreliterary forms: biography, documentary journalism, travel writing, storytellingand in some instances fictional passages and autobiography. In this it finds echoes in a tradition of ‘creativenon-fiction’ but also acknowledges the unique relationship between photographsand writing as distinct but potentially complementary creative practices.

Creative practice & artistic projects