Biography
Amanda Denny is a visual storyteller and photographic artist working with both analogue and digital image making processes. All of her practice now deals with the interplay of image, literature and archival documentary material in order to create new narratives. Memory, time and connections, co-joined by chance circumstances, are frequently at the start of her projects. Her practice explores many issues of our mental spaces, including resilience, social expectations, memory and being alone - solitude versus loneliness. She is concerned with the pressures of achievement, more so now ‘happiness’ is part of that unhealthy gamut. She believes that stories can help you exist in the world and by producing narrative spaces you can respond to everyday life and the social environment. There is the story and then there is the meaning to be teased from the gaps, juxtapositions and conversations.
The photobook and the development of photo-text are core to her practice as is creating tangible, tactile artwork that is designed to be viewed in person not on screen. Amanda’s work is held in private collections and she has been exhibited in group shows worldwide. She holds a first class BA (Hons) in Photography from the University of Westminster (2019), a BA (Hons) in Literature and History (Staffordshire University) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Arts Administration (City University).
Her new, partially collaborative, work in progress, started at the outset of the pandemic under the umberella title Meanwhile and derives from many readings of the Mary Oliver poem Wild Geese. ‘Whoever you are are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination …'. The project has multiple strands and is frequently process driven. The image-making window closed at the end of August 2021. A new photobook, Down, down, down and still the weeds remain, will form her first work from this period.
Group Exhibitions and Awards:
- Exhibitor at the ING Discerning Exhibition 2022, running from 11-22 November 2022 at the Mall Galleries London, SW1
- Selected for the New Platform Art Mentorship scheme 2022
- Works from The Empty Space and Meanwhile series displayed at
Bertie Blossoms in association with Open Art Spaces as part of Kensington + Chelsea Art Week 2022 June - September 2022
- New works from the Meanwhile series were exhibited at Open Art Spaces 9-10 October 2021 at Chelsea Theatre, SW10
- Participator and Exhibitior in the 2021 "Activating our Archives: Protest and Play" workshop and Pop Up Exhibtion in conjunction with Modern Art Oxford and Fusions Arts Oxford from 21 August - 28 September 2021.
- Featured in the Print edition and Online exhibition of the Shutterhub Yearbook 2021, organised in partnership with BenQ, Genesis Imaging, Metro Imaging.
- Exhibitor at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2020 (6 October 2020 - 3 January 2021).
- Exhibitor and participant: Modern Art Oxford “Activating our Archives: Community Dialogues” group project March - May 2020. A video and photographs of the work were shown in the MAO Responsive Space alongside Mariana Castillo Deball's exhibition: Between making and knowing something
- Featured in the Yearbook 2020 online exhibition, organised by Shutter Hub in partnership with BenQ, Exposure Photography Festival, Fujifilm Original Photo Paper and Newspaper Club
- Exhibitor in the nationwide Everyday Delight (Windows) Edition exhibition from 1 - 31 August 2020 (Van Gogh House, Brixton)
- Joint recepient of the Dentons Art Prize 2020 and Winner of the Dentons Arts Committee Prize 2020. Exhibition at Dentons Law Firm, London, (December 2019 – September 2020)
- No Place Like Home photo book was on display at La Biblioteca Nacional de España during the PHotoESPAÑA Festival 2019
- Exhibitor in the Time to Think Shutter Hub exhibition at Festival Pil’Ours, France 4th Edition. The exhibition runs from 1st July – 30 November 2019
- Cold Cases, Brighton Fringe, The Old Police Cells, Brighton 29 September 2018
- City to Sea Coney Island* 2018 Wall Ortiz Gallery, NY 13th September 2018 to 15th November 2018
- Peckham 24 Photography Festival 2018 - featured in the slideshow projection of works at the Overhaul exhibition, 18-20 May 2018, Safehouse 1, 139 Copeland Road, London, SE15 3SN
- Intrusion 2017 at Paddington Central, London
- Crossrail's Street Hoardings Photography Display Dean Street W1 since 2011
Her Book No Place Like Home (2018) was shortlisted for the La Fabrica and Photo London Book Dummy Award 2019 and was nominated for the First Book Award 2018.
For more information on Amanda's work please get in touch.