British Artist

Lives in Hackney, London

Stephen Gill was introduced to photography at an early age by his father, and his first photographs reflected his interests in birds, animals and music.

Stephen’s photographs are now held in various private and public collections and have also been exhibited at many international galleries and museums including London’s National Portrait Gallery, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Agnes B, Victoria Miro Gallery, Galerie Zur Stockeregg, Gun Gallery, The Photographers’ Gallery, Palais des Beaux Arts, Leighton House Museum, Haus Der Kunst and has had solo shows in festivals including – Recontres d’Arles, The Toronto photography festival and PHotoEspaña.

The Off Ground series, produced in August 2011 in response to the London riots. Over the three days of the riots, he collected rocks and lumps of stone or concrete that had been used as missiles by the rioters. In several instances, Gill saw from camera footage on the TV where a particular missile had landed and then went out to collect it.

Gill then took all of the collected debris back to his studio, and shot each one in identical conditions – over three consecutive nights to ensure precise consistency of light – with a £3,000 rented lens more often associated with medical photography. This careful, time-consuming, repetitive process both eschews the media’s desire for immediacy and results in images whose surfaces are rich with strange, beguiling detail.