Selected press & Tearsheets (click to read):

Rhiannon Adam

... is a photographic artist. She was born in Co. Cork, Ireland, and attended Central Saint Martins college of Art and Design and the University of Cambridge, where she studied Arts, Design and Environment, and English literature respectively. She is currently based between London and the United States.

Adam's work is heavily influenced by her nomadic childhood spent at sea, sailing around the world with her parents. Little photographic evidence of this period in her life exists, igniting an interest in the influence of photography on recall, the notion of the photograph as a physical object, and the image as an intersection between fact and fiction – themes that continue throughout her work.

Her long-term projects straddle art photography and social documentary, while subject matter is often focused on complex narratives relating to climate change, social injustice, outsider communities, and abuse of power. Within that, she is drawn to stories relating to the power of myth, and the often-close proximity between utopia and dystopia. The results of these explorations are captured almost exclusively in ambient light through the hazy abstraction of degrading Polaroid and colour negative film, and are often contrasted with the stark reality of archive material. Antiquated photographic processes, used to capture the seemingly invisible, and the written word are also key elements of her practice.

In 2015, supported by the BBC/Royal Geographical Society, Adam travelled to the remote island community of Pitcairn in the South Pacific. Pitcairn measures just two miles by one mile and is home to just 42 British subjects, descendants from the Mutiny on the Bounty. A decade ago, the island’s romantic image was tarnished by a string of high profile sexual abuse trials, as a result, islanders are particularly reticent about accepting outsiders. With trip duration dictated by the quarterly supply vessel, there would be no way off for three arduous months. Adam’s project is the first in-depth photographic project to take place on the island, and made its debut at Francesca Maffeo Gallery in Spring 2018. The project won the Meitar Award for Excellence in Photography in 2020. The resulting book, Big Fence / Pitcairn Island (Blow Up Press), was formally released in April 2022 on the anniversary of the Bounty Mutiny and appeared in the final 10 titles selected for the for the Photography Book Award at the 2022 Kraszna Krausz Foundation book awards.

As a part of her varied practice, Adam is also an occasional publisher and curator. Her imprint ‘Lost Cat’ was founded in 2013 with the release of Kevin Griffin's Omey Island: Last Man Standing, and until 2015, she was the resident curator and co-founder of Gallery One and a Half, a photography gallery in Hackney, London.

Her work has been exhibited internationally as well as being widely featured in the press –including the New York Times, M Magazine/Le Monde, Art Review, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Huffington Post, BBC, Vice, Huck, Featureshoot, The British Journal of Photography, Fisheye, It’s Nice That, Dazed and Confused, Colors magazine, Harpers Bazaar and Loose Associations (published by the Photographer’s Gallery).

In addition, Adam can often be found teaching workshops and giving talks at various universities and institutions – recent appearances include the Royal College of Art, Martin Parr Foundation, Royal Academy of Arts, the Photographer’s Gallery, Tate, V&A Museum, Royal Photographic Society, and the Barbican. In 2018 and 2021, her work was included in the British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Britain exhibition and book, as part of the National Portrait Gallery’s Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize exhibition, as well as showing as part of 209 Women at the Houses of Parliament and Open Eye Gallery. She was also awarded the Fractured Stories commission from the British Journal of Photography, exploring the issue of fracking (hydraulic fracturing) in the UK which formed the genesis of The Rift project. In April 2019 she was named as one of the winners of The Photographers’ Gallery’s inaugural New Talent Award, and her work showed at the gallery between June and October 2019. Her work has also been a part of festivals such as Photo Vogue, and the Rencontres d’Arles.

Adam’s first book, Dreamlands, Wastelands (published by Jane and Jeremy) was released in 2014. In October 2017, Thames and Hudson first published her exhaustive resource on instant photography - Polaroid: The Missing Manual, The Complete Creative Guide (translated titles vary), which was rereleased in spring 2022. Big Fence / Pitcairn Island (Blow Up Press, 2022) is available now (click to order).

In 2022, she was announced as one of eight crew members (all creatives) selected for the first civilian lunar orbital mission; dearMoon, funded by Japanese entrepreneur, Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) aboard SpaceX’s Starship. In June 2024, the project was cancelled abruptly.

Adam is currently working on a new project in South Africa.

Pronouns: she / her / them / they

Visit me on: Instagram

X: @blackbirdsfly

Representation

Gallery / Print sales: Open Doors Gallery
Contact: Tom Page: tom@opendoors.gallery

Works also available from Elijah Wheat Showroom

Commercial agent: At Trayler (UK)
https://attrayler.co/artist/rhiannon-adam
+44 20 7370 0712
artists@atcollective.co

Contact

rhiannon@rhiannonadam.com

Location

Current Schedule:
London, December 2024 / South Africa, January 2025 / Washington DC - 17-21st January 2025 / New York, February onwards, 2025