Inga Lísa Middleton (born December 9, 1964) is an Icelandic photographer / film maker recently specialising in producing her photographs as

cyanotype The cyanotype (from , and , ) is a slow-reacting, photographic printing formulation sensitive to a limited near-ultraviolet and blue light spectrum, the range 300 nm to 400 nm known as UVA radiation. It produces a monochrome, blu ...

prints. She has also directed several films, such as the anthology

Comedy drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

''Dramarama'', and the short film ''Búi, which'' won the short film award at the SCHLINGEL International Film Festival. Her photographs have gone on to be shown in

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and the United Kingdom.

Education

Inga Lísa Middleton was born in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

, Iceland, and performed her Icelandic University Entrance Exam at Menntaskólinn við Sund. Moving from Iceland to the United Kingdom in 1985, she gained an art foundation diploma after studying a year course at Sunderland Polytechnic. Middleton then enrolled at

West Surrey College of Art and Design Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College (SIAD) was an Art school, art college in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 2005. It was formed from the merger of West Surrey College of Art and Design (1969–1995) and Epsom School of Art and ...

Farnham Farnham is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a tributary of the ...

, where she studied for three years and graduated with a BA in photography, film/video and animation.Inga Lisa Middleton (1993) ''Curreculum Vitae, resume -https://www.icelandicfilms.info/person/nr/647.'' Retrieved 2021-03-18 It was during this time where she created her first animated short film, ''Mommy, Daddy, Bobby and Debby'', of which was sold off to the British television channel,

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

. After university, she went on to complete a two-year

postgraduate Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

course at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

in London, England. Here, in 1992, she graduated with an MA in visual communication. It would be the same year that Middleton would go on to direct and write the animated short film A Fairy Tale of Our Time. The short received critical acclaim and was later nominated for best short film at the 46th annual

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

Photography

In 2017, Middleton showed off her first photograph exhibition, titled ''Thoughts of Home'', a series of cyanotype prints documenting the wildlife and natural environments of Iceland. The project was first exhibited at the Icelandic Embassy in Copenhagen,

, and the

National Museum of Iceland The National Museum of Iceland ( Icelandic: ''Þjóðminjasafn Íslands'' ) was established on 24 February 1863, with Jón Árnason the first curator of the Icelandic collection, previously kept in Danish museums. Collections The second curat ...

in Reykjavík, Iceland. One year later, ''Thoughts of Home,'' went on to be exhibited at the Icelandic Embassy in London, England, and at the annual

Photo London Photo London is an annual photography event held at Somerset House in London in May.Photo London
...

event, held inside Sommerset House, London. Middleton notes her inspiration for ''Thoughts of Home'' as being, both, her

nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a neoclassical compound derived from Greek language, Greek, consisting of (''nóstos''), a Homeric word me ...

for growing up in Iceland, while also the pairing of the beauty in nature and practical efficient undertones. 2018 also saw the reveal of Middleton's second art project, ''Tip of the Iceburg;'' cyanotype prints of

iceberg An iceberg is a piece of fresh water ice more than long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". Much of an i ...

s, with only the iceberg's tip not submerged under water. ''Phytoplankton'', her most recent project, was first revealed at Photo London, in 2019. Middleton was inspired to pursue this project was by through how

unicellular organism A unicellular organism, also known as a single-celled organism, is an organism that consists of a single cell, unlike a multicellular organism that consists of multiple cells. Organisms fall into two general categories: prokaryotic organisms and ...

s, known as

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater Aquatic ecosystem, ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek language, Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), mea ...

, are being destroyed by

microplastics Microplastics are "synthetic solid particles or polymeric matrices, with regular or irregular shape and with size ranging from 1 μm to 5 mm, of either primary or secondary manufacturing origin, which are insoluble in water." Microplastics a ...

, even though they are vital to keeping the humans alive by producing the majority of the

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

. She has also gone on record as being influenced by the work of

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...

, specifically his book ''Man and His Symbols''. The works has been shown at PhotoLondon 2019 and at the Icelandic Embassy in Tokyo, Japan.

Filmography

Exhibitions

* ''Thoughts of Home (2017)'' – Embassy of Iceland – Copenhagen, Denmark * ''Thoughts of Home'' ''(2017)'' – National Museum of Iceland – Reykjavik, Iceland * ''Thoughts of Home'' (''2018)'' – Embassy of Iceland – London, United Kingdom * ''Tip of the Iceburg &'' ''Thoughts of Home'' ''(2018)'' – London, United Kingdom * ''Tip of the Iceburg &'' ''Thoughts of Home (2018)'' – London, United Kingdom * ''Phytoplankton (2019)'' – Photo London – London, United Kingdom * ''Megaptera (2021)'' – Photo London – London, United Kingdom * ''Phytoplankton (2021-23)'' – Embassy of Iceland – Tokyo, Japan * ''Icons of the Oceand (2022)'' – Photo London – London, United Kingdom * ''Solo show (2022-23)'' – L'Atelier D'Artistes – Paris, France * ''Oceans in the age of humans (2023)'' – Arctic Circle Japan Forum – Tokyo, Japan * ''Oceans in the age of humans (2023)'' – Akureyri Art museum – Akureyri, Iceland * ''Phytoplankton (2024-2025)'' – The Box - Plymouth Art Centre, United Kingdom * ''Group show (2022-23)'' – L'Atelier D'Artistes – Paris, France

Notes

:_{a.Filmography gathered from the Icelandic Film Centre}

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Middleton, Inga 1964 births Living people 20th-century Icelandic women artists 21st-century Icelandic women artists 21st-century Icelandic artists 20th-century women photographers 21st-century women photographers Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of the University of Sunderland Icelandic film directors Icelandic photographers People from Reykjavík