Source: www.glos.ac.uk. All Rights Reserved. 2026 University of Gloucestershire
Richard has been with University of Gloucestershire since 2006 and is a critically acclaimed artist, photographer and filmmaker.
He was the first in his family to attend university, graduating from Sunderland University, 1994 with a B.A in painting. During this time, he turned to photography and whilst still a student was invited by curator Val Williams to exhibit a photographic triptych of his father in Who’s looking at the Family, at the Barbican Art Gallery London – a landmark exhibition and the first in the UK to survey work made by photographers whose inspiration was their own family.
He received gallery representation by Anthony Reynolds, London and was the first recipient of the City Bank Prize for Photography (now the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize) in 1997. In the same year he exhibited in Sensation at the Royal Academy, London and was nominated for the Turner Prize 2001.
Billingham’s first feature film Ray & Liz was based on his lived experience of growing up in a high rise flat in the West Midlands. It received 18 awards and a further 25 nominations, including a BAFTA for Best Debut Feature Film 2019. It holds 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and 81% on Metacritic indicating ‘Universal Acclaim.’ He currently has two further features in development.
A new, revised publication of Billingham’s early photographic work Ray’s a Laugh was published by Mack Books in 2024. This was accompanied by a Ray’s a Laugh Reader edited by Liz Joby that traces the works history and impact.
Richard’s photography and video work is held in many public collections including MoMA New York, Metropolitan Museum New York, MoMA San Francisco, The UK Government Art Collection, The Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Galleries London.
Richard received an Honorary Fellowship 2025 from the Royal Photographic Society in recognition of a ‘significant personal achievement in photography.’
He is represented by the Anthony Wilkinson Gallery London and Casarotto Ramsey and Associates London.
Richard became Professor of Fine Art at University Gloucestershire in 2012 and is a PhD supervisor.
He is committed to students reaching full creative potential and brings direct experience from working closely with gallery curators, publishers and producers. He encourages ‘thinking through making’ in film, photography, exhibition and publication and often works with PhD students on location, connecting thinking and ideas with practice and theory.
He is currently interested in receiving PhD proposals connected with themes of climate change, marginalized communities and human connection to nature and place.
Over the years, besides having a permanent post at University of Gloucestershire, Richard has also been invited to teach for short periods in a variety of institutions across BA, MA and PhD programmes including The Royal College of Art; LUCA School of Arts Brussels; Goldsmiths University of London; Griffin University Brisbane; University of North Texas; Fatamorgana School of Art Photography Copenhagen, Ruskin College University of Oxford and many others.
Richard’s practice has a reputation for impactful realism, direct storytelling and crosses film directing, screenwriting, photography, video, gallery exhibition and book publication.
It focuses on marginalized communities, landscape, place and more recently, climate change. Work evolves gradually from collected ‘evidence bases’ comprising empirical observation of everyday life, interviews and lived experiences.
Past bodies of work include Ray’s a Laugh 1996, the TV / gallery film Fish Tank 1998, Black Country 2003, Zoo 2006, the feature film Ray & Liz 2019 and extensive work made in the British landscape. Together, his photography and video installations have had more over 40 solo exhibitions and been included in more than 200 group shows internationally.
Richard is currently developing two further features. One is an adaptation of the ‘nature’ novel At Hawthorn Time by Melissa Harrison in development with the British Film Institute. The other, Ceri, is about climate change and currently in development with Ffilm Cymru and Media Cymru Wales.
More publications from Prof Richard Billingham can be found in the Research Repository.
Richard regularly contributes to symposia. These have included The Ethics of Photography Yale 2007 Newhaven (Keynote); Responding to a Landscape MAC Birmingham 2017 (Keynote); Exposure 3: Human drama and documentary ICA London 2015 and Artists Films CPH Doc Copenhagen, Denmark 2014.
In 2019 he was invited as a member of the International Competition Jury at FIDMarseille Film Festival, France. Other adjudication commitments have included The Rome Fellowship in Contemporary Art 2018; The Spectrum Art Prize London 2018; The Royal Photographic Society International Print Exhibition 2015 and New Contemporaries 2009.
He has been a speaker at many public institutions including The Martin Parr Foundation Bristol 2024; Aesthetica Short Film Festival York and Materdiro Centro De Creacion Contemporanea Madrid 2019; Chobe Mela Photography Festival Dhaka Bangladesh 2013; Institute for Contemporary Photography Melbourne Australia 2012; Paris Sorbonne University 2010 and Sotheby’s Institute of Art London 2009.
; ?> "Visit the homepage"){kind=logo}