Anna Fox (born 1961) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

documentary photographer, known for a "combative, highly charged use of flash and colour". In 2019 she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is the world's oldest photographic society having been in continuous existence since 1853. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as th ...

Career and work

Fox completed her degree in Photography 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, Surrey 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 administrative counties of England, county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the ...

in 1986 under tutors

Martin Parr Martin Parr (born 23 May 1952) is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in p ...

, Paul Graham and Karen Knorr. Fox first came to attention with her 1988 documentary study of London office life on the mid-1980s, ''Work Stations: Office Life in London''. She is perhaps best known for her ''Zwarte Piet'' series made between 1993 and 1998, published as the book ''Zwarte Piet'', which documents 'black face'

folk culture Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as tales, myths, legends, proverbs, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also includes mat ...

traditions in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Between 2001 and 2003 she published four monographs in her "Made in" series: ''Made in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

'', ''Made in

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

'', ''Made in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

'' and ''Made in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

''. From 2009, Fox photographed for two years at

Butlins Butlin's is a chain of large Seaside resort, seaside resorts in the United Kingdom, incorporated as Butlins Skyline Limited. Butlin's was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families. Between 1936 and 1 ...

in Bognor Regis for her book ''Resort 1 - Butlin's Bognor Regis''. She currently works as head of photography at

University for the Creative Arts The University for the Creative Arts is a specialist art and design university in Southern England. It was formed in 2005 as University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester when the Kent Institu ...

in Farnham. A retrospective 300-page book ''Photographs 1983-2007'' by Val Williams was published by Photoworks in 2007. In November 2009 Fox was shortlisted for the 2010 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, held at the Photographers Gallery, London, and the 2012 Pilar Citoler Prize. In 2019, Fox was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the

. The critic

Sean O'Hagan Sean O'Hagan (born 1959) is an Irish singer and songwriter who leads the avant-pop band the High Llamas, which he founded in 1992. He is also known for being one half of the songwriting duo (with Cathal Coughlan) in Microdisney and for his wor ...

, reviewing ''Resort 1 - Butlin's Bognor Regis'' in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', said "Her work often hones in on the particular to suggest the universal, such as her series The Village (1991–1993), in which rural England becomes a pastiche of itself even as the individual lives glimpsed therein seem vividly real." David Chandler, in his essay ''Vile Bodies'', in the book ''Anna Fox Photographs 1983-2007'', said Fox is "widely regarded as an important part of what might be called the 'second wave' of British colour documentary photography" and that she "helped form its particular style of combative, highly charged use of flash and colour".

Publications

Publications by Fox

*''Work Stations: Office Life in London Photographed by Anna Fox.'' Camerawork, 1988. . *''Street Dreams: Indian Vernacular Studio Photographs.'' Booth-Clibborn, 1997. . Edited by Val Williams. *''Cockroach Diary.'' Shoreditch Biennale, 2000. . *''Zwarte Piet.'' London: Black Dog, 2001. . *''Made in Europe.'' Milton Keynes Gallery, 2001-2003. Five small paperbacks. Made in Milton Keynes 2001, . Made in Gothenburg 2002, . Made in Kaunas 2002, . Made in Florence 2003, . Made in Los Cristianos 2003, . Photographs and texts made by teenagers in five European cities. *''Resort 1 - Butlin's Bognor Regis.'' Amsterdam: Schilt, 2013. . Text by Stephen Bull. *''Portraits from an Island.'' Newsprint catalogue with essay, 2015

Other publications

* ''Anna Fox Photographs 1983-2007.'' By Val Williams. Brighton: Photoworks, 2007. . With texts by David Chandler, Val Williams, Jason Evans and Mieke Bal. *''Basics Creative Photography 03: Behind the Image: Research in Photography.'' London: AVA, 2012. . With Natasha Caruana. *''Langford's Basic Photography: The guide for serious photographers.'' By Michael Langford, Fox, and Richard Sawdon Smith. **Waltham, MA: Focal Press, 2015. . Tenth edition.

Exhibitions (selected)

*1990: ''In Pursuit,'' solo exhibition, Photographers' Gallery, London, 30 November 1990 – 19 January 1991. *2009: ''Cockroach Diary and Other Stories,'' Ffotogallery, Turner House Gallery, Penarth, Wales. *2011: ''Resort,'' Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK, 25 June – 2 October 2011. *2011: ''Resort,'' James Hyman Photography, London, 12 October – 12 November 2011.

Awards

*2019: Honorary Fellowship of the

, Bristol.

References

External links

*
Fox at James Hyman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Anna 1961 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Social documentary photographers British documentary photographers Academics of the University for the Creative Arts Alumni of the University for the Creative Arts 20th-century British women photographers 21st-century British women artists 21st-century British women photographers 21st-century British photographers British women photojournalists Color photography