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

cyanotype The cyanotype (from Ancient Greek κυάνεος - ''kuáneos'', “dark blue” + τύπος - ''túpos'', “mark, impression, type”) is a slow-reacting, economical photographic printing formulation sensitive to a limited near ultraviolet ...

prints. She has also directed several films, such as the anthology Comedy drama ''Dramarama'', and the short film ''Búi, which'' won the short film award at the

SCHLINGEL International Film Festival Schlingel (Usually written: SCHLINGEL) is an international film festival for children and young audiences. The festival began in 1996, and has taken place annually in Chemnitz ever since in the week before the Saxon Fall Break. The festival giv ...

. Her photographs have gone on to be shown in

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Education

Inga Lísa Middleton was born in

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a pop ...

, Iceland, and performed her Icelandic University Entrance Exam at

Menntaskólinn við Sund Menntaskólinn við Sund (MS) is a secondary school in Reykjavík founded in 1969. At the time, there were only 4 other such schools in Iceland. It was originally named Menntaskólinn við Tjörnina (College by the Pond). Some of the school's for ...

. Moving from Iceland to the United Kingdom in 1985, she gained an art foundation diploma after studying a year course at

Sunderland Polytechnic , mottoeng = Sweetly absorbing knowledge , established = 1901 - Sunderland Technical College1969 - Sunderland Polytechnic1992 - University of Sunderland (gained university status) , staff = , chancellor = Emel ...

. Middleton then enrolled at

West Surrey College of Art and Design Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College (SIAD) was an 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 Design (1893� ...

, Farnham, 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 network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

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

postgraduate Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and str ...

course at the

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

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 Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

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 National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

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 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 freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially-derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". Th ...

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 a ...

s, known as

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

, are being destroyed by

microplastics Microplastics are fragments of any type of plastic less than in length, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Chemicals Agency. They cause pollution by entering natural ecosystems from a v ...

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

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. ...

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as we ...

. 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 and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phil ...

, 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

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 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