Melinda Gibson

Biography

Melinda Gibson was born in 1985 in the UK, and currently lives and works in London. She studied for a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Photography at the London College of Communication. In 2010, The Magenta Foundation selected her, as one of the British winners of the Emerging Photographers Award. She is also one of the 15 winners of the annual Talent Call chosen by FOAM magazine in 2010. Melinda has been published in numerous publications, online and in print including FOAM magazine, 1000 Words Photography magazine, British Journal of Photography, the Everyday Catalogue by Studio Blanco and a portfolio of her work is currently part of Foam Museum's 10th Anniversary project What's Next.

Exhibitions include Alice in Wonderland, Finland's largest contemporary photography exhibition, part of the European Capital of Culture at Logomo, Turku which will travel to Centro del arte contemporáneo de Cadiz in Spain. Photo50, The New Alchemists: Contemporary Photographers Transcending the Print at the London Art Fair and future shows include The Houston Centre of Photography. Melinda was named as inspiration for the Hugo boss Spring/Summer 2012 Collection, Poetic Tailoring launched at Berlin Fashion Week in July 2011.

Melinda Gibson is interested in the changing perspectives of the photographic medium, how images are viewed and understood through the technological advances in photography and the help and hindrances this brings forth into our contemporary culture.

For more information, visit Melinda Gibson's website here

Artist Statement

This series The Photograph as Contemporary Art examines the educational text by Charlotte Cotton. Through the medium of photomontage, each piece is a trio of imagery removed from the book and recontextualised as one. This body of work brings forth questions surrounding our educational system, copyright and licensing as well as audience participation. As the publication of imagery continues digitally, every image can be searched for, clicked on, cut, copy, pasted. What becomes apparent is the canonisation of imagery found in such sources, the same photographers, images appear and re-appear.

This sameness is only reiterated through the educational system bound to our institutions. Taking such texts apart helps to question this canonisation, far more than when they are within the constraints of a book. By slicing, cutting, composing these images against one another, you decontextualise them, recreate them into new dismembered realities.

Each image, composed of three separate parts, some removed and discarded are an appropriation of an original, reorganised with additional elements that makes itself into a new original. Through this deconstruction you start to gain a greater appreciation of the works and start understanding why and how these photographers, these images have become so prominent.