Simon Norfolk is a landscape photographer whose work over the last ten years has been themed around a probing and stretching of the meaning of the word ʻbattlefieldʼ in all its forms. As such, he has photographed in some of the world's worst war zones and refugee crises, but is equally at home photographing supercomputers used to design military systems or test launches of nuclear missiles. His work has been widely recognised: he has won Le Prix Dialogue at Les Rencontres d'Arles in 2005; The Infinity Prize from The International Center of Photography in 2004; the Foreign Press Club of America Award in 2003: and he was winner of the European Publishing Award, 2002. In 2003 he was shortlisted for the Citibank Prize now known as the Deutsche Böurse Prize.
He has produced three monographs of his work including ʼAfghanistan:chronotopiaʼ (2002) which was published in 5 languages; 'For Most Of It I Have No Words' (1998) about the landscapes of genocide and 'Bleed' (2005) about the war in Bosnia. He has work held in major collections such as The Museum of Fine Art, Houston and Deutsche Böurse Art Collection in Frankfurt and the collection of the British Council. He has been described by one critic as 'the leading documentary photographer of our time. Passionate, intelligent and political; there is no one working in photography that has his vision or his clarity'
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- 2010
- Continuity- Center for Contemporary Arts Celje, Celje
Level 2 Gallery: Burke + Norfolk: Photographs From The War In Afghanistant- Tate Modern, London - 2008
- Biennale Internazionale di Fotografia di Brescia, Italy
"Full Spectrum Dominance: missiles, rockets, satellites in America," one of Kathy Ryan's curated exhibitions, part of the New York Photo Festival.
"Simon Norfolk: a retrospective," MACUF – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Unión Fenosa, La Coruña, Spain
"Full Spectrum Dominance: missiles, rockets, satellites in America,'" Michael Hoppen Contemporary, London - 2007
- "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." La Médiatine, Brussels
"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." McBride Fine Arts, Antwerp
"Archaeological Treasures from the Tigris Valley," Le Theatre Royal de Namur, Belgium
Ogilvy and Mather, New York, NY, USA
Illinois Holocaust Museum, Chicago, IL, USA - 2006
- "Et in Arcadia ego," The Halsey Gallery of the College of Charleston, SC, USA
"Et in Arcadia ego," Russian Academy of Fine Arts, Moscow
"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." The AoP Gallery, London, England
"Et in Arcadia ego," Shanghai Art Museum - 2005
- "Et in Arcadia ego," Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York, NY, USA
"Eastern Bosnia and Northern Normandy", The Photographers' Gallery, London, England
"Bleed," Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR, USA
"Et in Arcadia ego," Les Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France
"Et in Arcadia ego," Lavitt's Quay, Cork, Ireland
"Welcome to the Hotel Africa," Lavitt's Quay, Cork, Ireland
"Refuge," Sirius Arts Centre, Cork, Ireland
"Welcome to the Hotel Africa," Hereford Photography Festival, England - 2004
- "Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword," Galerie Martin Kudlek, Cologne, Germany
"Scenes from a Liberated Iraq," FotoFest, Houston, TX, USA
"Scenes from a Liberated Iraq,"Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA, USA - 2003
- The Minneapolis Center for Photography, MN, USA
The Society for Contempory Photography, Kansas City, MO, USA - 2002
- The Holocaust Museum, Houston, TX, USA
Photosynkyria, Thessaloniki, Greece - 2000
- The Imperial War Museum, London, England
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR, USA - 1999
- The Royal Photographic Society, England
Impressions Gallery New York, NY, USA
Open Eye Gallery, York, England
Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, England
Blue Sky Gallery , Portland, OR, USA
Side Gallery New Castle, England
Nederlands Foto Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands
The 5th International Fototage, Herten, Germany
Afghanistan: chronotopia - 2005
- Zephyr, Mannheim (with Ori Gersht)
- 2004
- Belfast Exposed, Belfast, N.Ireland
- 2003
- Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio, TX, USA
Fotofestival Naarden, Netherlands
2nd International Photography Festival, Rome, Italy
The Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Ireland
The Citibank Prize, The Photographers' Gallery, London, England
The Citibank Prize, Museum Kunst Palast, Duesseldorf, Germany
The Citibank Prize, Photo Espana, Madrid, Spain - 2002
- The Minneapolis Center for Photography, MN, USA
The British Council, London, England
Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, England
Side Gallery, Newcastle, England
Photofusion Gallery, London, England
Trace Gallery, Weymouth, Dorset, England
The Hereford Photography Festival, Hereford, England
Galerie Martin Kudlek, Cologne, Germany
Deutsches Architektur Museum, Frankfurt, Germany
Gallerie FOTO, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
The Florence Photography Festival, Florence, Italy
The Sani Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece
The Griffin Center for Photography, Boston, MA, USA
The Halsey Gallery at The College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA
FotoFest, Houston, TX, USA
Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR, USA
Benham Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA
MACUF Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Union Fenosa, A Coruña
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS - 2011
- “DarkLight”-Galerie Martin Kudlek, Cologne
- 2010
- Hereford Photography Festival 2010, Hereford, England
Afghanistan- Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, England
Bredaphoto – International Photo Festival, Breda
Raptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection- Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX
Six Years- McBride Fine Art, Antwerp - 2009
- Photowar- 3. Photofestival Mannheim Ludwigshafen Heidelbergs- Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen
AspectRatio-Tent – Centrum Beeldende Kunst, Rotterdam
"Manifest Destiny", Moeller Fine Art Berlin, Germany - 2008
- "Masterworks of American Photography," Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX, USA
"Blight and Hope" Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, Korea and The Korean Cultural Centre, London, England
"The Sublime Image of Destruction," De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, E. Sussex part of Brighton Photo Biennial 2008, England
New on the Wall- Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Children in Conflict- Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton (England) - 2007
- "Beautiful Suffering, Photography And the Traffic in Pain". Williams College Museum of Art, MA, USA
"Ingenuity"(Engineering in Photography). The Calouste Gulbenkian, Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
"Loaded Landscapes," Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, USA
"Aftershock," Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art, Norwich, England
Break 2.4, International Art Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia
"How We Are: Photographing Britain." Tate Britain, London, England
Acquisitions 2006 – National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea, Gwacheon - 2006
- "post-doc" Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Greece
Night of the Museums at Stifftung Deutsche Börse, Frankfurt, Germany
"Ecotopia" The 2nd ICP Trienial, International Center of Photography, New York, NY, USA
"Long Exposures: Contemporary photo-essays from the permanent collection,"
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, USA
20/30 Vision: Anniversary Exhibition - Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York, NY
Shifting Terrain. Contemporary Landscape Photography - The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Ruined - Memory, Image and Survival - Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell, IA
The Sixth International Photography Month in Moscow: Photobiennale 2006 - Moscow House of Photography, Moscow - 2005
- "Vital Signs", The George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, USA
"Srebrenica - Remembrance for the Future" organized by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. Tour to Brussels, Belgrade, Berlin, Athens, Washington, Strasbourg and Sarajevo - 2004
- "Arti & Archittettura", Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy
"Heimweg", international exhibit project- Galerie Martin Kudlek, Cologne
DACS 20th Anniversary Exhibition - Mall Galleries, London, England - 2003
- "War" Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Spain
FotoFest (Photo festival) 2004 - The Tenth International Month of Photography - FotoFest Biennial, Houston, TX
"In Nature - the obsessive eye, the absent mind", The 10th Turin Biennale, Italy
"M_ARS Art and War", Neue Gallerie Graz, Austria
The Citibank Prize, The Photographers' Gallery, London, England
The Citibank Prize, Museum Kunst Palast, Duesseldorf, Germany
The Citibank Prize, Photo Espana, Madrid, Spain
International Awards - 2008
- American Photography 24
PDN's "Photography Annual" - 2006
- The Association of Photographers' 'Document' Prize and a Silver Award
- 2005
- The Association of Photographers' Bursary
Le Prix Dialogue, Les Rencontres d'Arles 2005 - 2004
- The Infinity Award from the International Center for Photography, New York (for the Refugee work in the New York Times Magazine)
- 2003
- Shortlisted for the Citibank Prize 2003
The Stuttgarter Fotobuchpreis - 2002
- The 'Sani' Prize from Photosynkyria. Thessaloniki, Greece
The Olivier Rebbot Award for Best International Reporting from the Foreign Press Club of America (for the Afghanistan work in the New York Times Magazine)
The European Publishers' Award for Photography (for 'Afghanistan: chronotopia') - 2001
- A World Press Award
A Silver Award from the Association of Photographers
Museums and Public Collectons
Moeller Fine Art, Berlin
The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA
The National Media Museum, Bradford (formerly NMFPTV)
The Sir Elton John Collection, England
The British Council Collection, England
The Hayward Gallery, London, England
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA
Portland Art Museum, OR, USA
The Weismann Art Museum, MN, USA
Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Museum, England
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, USA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, USA
The George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, USA
Channel 4 TV, England
Gana Art Center, S. Korea
Deutsche Börse Art Collection, Germany
The ING Bank Art Collection, Belgium
The Wilson Centre for Photography, England
The Moscow House of Photography, Russia
The Photographers Gallery, London, England
Various private collections in Europe, the Far East and the USA
Museum of the Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA, USA
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX, USA
Illinois Holocaust Museum, IL, USA
St. Louis Art Museum, MO, USA
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, USA
Lives and works in Brighton, England