“Edward is the most single minded photographer. He probably thinks about photography all the time, like a trainspotter, but a photographer.
He’d take a photograph whilst falling out of a moving vehicle.”
Germaine Greer
Biography
Edward Thompson (B. 1980, Wales) is a British documentary photographer. His photographic work has focused on various subjects over the years covering environmental issues, socio-political movements, subcultures, everyday life and the consequences of war.
He had a life changing experience with an early apprenticeship with the Russian photographer Sergey Chilikov, whom he met at the Arles Photography Festival in 2001. That summer Ed stayed with Sergey in Paris and learnt the value of shooting everyday life, eating fried fat and drinking red wine. Sergeys friend Gueorgui Pinkhassov told him how photographing the everyday can allow you to touch at something great. And it did.
Since then his documentary photo-essays have been published in international magazines including National Geographic Magazine, The Guardian Weekend Magazine, BBC, CNN and The Sunday Times Magazine.
His work has been exhibited at The Saatchi Gallery, Christies, Somerset House and Four Corners Gallery (London) and shown as part of photography festivals in Arles (France), Tampere (Finland), Spain (Barcelona), Zingst (Germany) & London (U.K)
He has lectured on photography at The V&A Museum, The Photographers Gallery, The Bishopsgate Institute, L.C.C, The University of Falmouth, The University of Northampton and at the University of East London. He’s spoken regularly about photography on television, radio and online, including on Al Jazeera News and the BBC World Service.
In 2024 he self-published the Welcome To Dungeness photography book. In 2023 he self-published When In The Lone Star State. In 2022 he self-published In-A-Gadda-Da-England. In 2016 he published The Unseen: An Atlas of Infrared Plates with Schilt Publishing. In 2012 he self-published Occupy London. You can see these photo books in the collections and archives of the National Art Library in the V&A Museum, The Bishopsgate Institute, The Museum of London, The British Library and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.
If you run an archive or collection, and think Ed’s work would be relevant, please get in touch.
If you run a Photo Agency and would like to represent Ed and his archive, please get in touch.
If you know Alan Moore, Trent Reznor or Christopher Nolan, please get in touch.
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Exhibition
The Way Of All Flesh. The Saatchi Gallery, London. 2024
GROUP SHOWS
2026 - IAFOR Documentary Photography Award Touring Exhibition. Sala Golfes (Centre Cívic Pati Llimona),Spain.
2025 - Affordable Art Fair. Battersea, London. Showing withKingsford Gallery.
2024 - Affordable Art Fair. Battersea, London. Showing with Kingsford Gallery.
2024 - Saatchi Gallery, London.TheWay Of All Flesh group show.
2022 - Consequences: Art & Activism in the Nuclear Age. Out of the Blue Drill Hall. Edinburgh, Scotland. Curated by The Peace Cranes Project.
2020 - Sony World Photo Award.Selected photographs from In The Garden of England. Willy Brandt Haus, Berlin. Germany.
2019 - Sony World Photo Award.Selected photographs from In The Garden of England. Somerset House, London.
2017 - MACULA - Centro Internazionale di Cultura Fotografica (Italy)
2016 - FixPhoto with Laura Noble Gallery, London (U.K). The Unseen.
2014 - Somerset House, London. Sony World Photo Award. England till I Die.
2013 - Christies, London. The Unseen Project.Pluckley (2011).
2013 -The Rise of Populism. Group Exhibition. Melkweg Gallery, Amsterdam. Holland.
2013 - Horizonte Zingst Photo Festival, Germany. 'The Village' from The Unseen Project.
2012 -Photomonth:Radical London Bishopsgate Institute, London. Occupy London photographs.
2012 -Occupy!I.C.P Occupies Governors Island, New York. Occupy London photographs.
2012 – Rise of Populism group exhibition withFotodok. Town Hall Square, Utrecht. Holland.
2011 – Christies, London. Multiplied Art Fair. Re-Home Series.
2011 – Margate Photo Festival. Transition Town Series.
2010 – Magnum Photos/Ideastap Photographic Award. Re-Home Series.
2010 – Photomonth - East London Photo Festival. Re-Home Series.
2010 – Margate Photo-Festival - Projection - Anarcho-Dandies.
2009 – Turner Contemporary Open, Margate, UK. Living Historians Series.
2009 – National Union of Journalists. Photography Matters Exhibition.
2008 – Backlight 08. Tampere, Finland. Triennial showcasing 50 international photographers.
2008 – The Print Space, Shoreditch. Images from the Texas Hill Country series
2007 – The London College of Communication. The Texas Hill Country series.
2005 – OXO Tower Gallery, London. Seeds of Change Observer Photography exhibition.
2005 – Margate Rocks. Thanet Contemporary Arts Festival .
2003 – Les Rencontres d'Arles, France – TEC/TECE via L'ecole Nationale de la Photographie exposition.
2003 – Truman Brewery - London, England - K.I.A.D Degree Show.
2002 – Les Rencontres d'Arles, France. – TEC/TECE via L'ecole Nationale de la Photographie exposition.
SOLO SHOWS
2017 - Lilford Gallery, Canterbury, Kent. (U.K). The Unseen.
2015 - Four Corners Gallery, London (U.K). The Unseen.
2014 - The Royal Engineers Museum, Kent (U.K). The Unseen: The Red Forest.
Publication
National Geographic Magazine
Newsweek (Japan & International)
The Guardian
The Guardian Weekend Magazine
British Journal of Photography
The Eyes Magazine
Creative Review
Another Magazine
HUCK
Professional Photographer (U.K)
The Sunday Times Magazine
The Sunday Times Newspaper
The Telegraph Magazine
The Independent New Review
The i Newspaper
CNN
MSNBC
ARTE TV (Europe)
TV5MONDE (France)
BBC
Al Jazeera News
Huffington Post
VICE
Harper’s Magazine (USA)
Photo District News
GUP (Holland)
The Big Issue
Falter (Austria)
L'espresso Magazine (Italy)
D Repubblica (Italy)
Greenpeace Magazine (Holland)
Der Freitag (Germany)
IL Magazine (Italy)
A Magazine curated by (Belgium)
Digital Photographer
Kamera-Lehti (Finland)
JPG Magazine