Julie Derbyshire
Julie Derbyshire is a photographic artist with a practice that is research based and process led. Informed by art history and by her own lived experience, She explores themes of fragility, transience and the universality of our shared human condition.
Derbyshire combines the allure of beauty with an undercurrent of disquiet, this opposition providing a vehicle to interrogate the contradictory nature of our world. Often minimal in appearance and presenting a study in positive and negative space, her constructed images involve photography in a process of revelation, concealment and absence.
Derbyshire employs the medium of photography as the final distillation of a creative process that encompasses acts of fabrication, manipulation and disruption. These feed her interest in the relationship between two and three dimensions, explored both through crafting objects that she then re-presents on the flat photographic plane, and through physical and digital manipulations throughout the creative process.
She approaches photography as an instrument of illusion, to beguile rather than recite. By exploring the potential of the photographic object to conjure new meaning, Derbyshire invites the viewer to reflect and to question what lies beyond the image.
Solo Exhibition:
2019 – Possession: One Paved Court, London
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2025 - Beyond the Frame: Online Artdoc Exhibition
2024 - Circle II, Pollen Collective: Gallery at Kindred Studios, London
2024 - Photofusion Salon/24: Photofusion, London
2024 - Made by Many Acts, Pollen Collective at Olympiada: 6 Charlton Place, London
2024 - Creative Photography: Online Artdoc Exhiition
2023 - Women in Art, ECAD Gallery, Cromwell Place, London
2023 - Inspirational Women Artists: God’s House Tower, Southamption
2023 - Women in Photography: The Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Glasgow
2023 - Colour: The Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Glasgow
2023 - A Patch of Sky: One Paved Court, London
2022 - Exposure, Pollen Collective: Shepherds Bush Arch Space, London
2022 - TASC at Hand: The Muse Gallery, London
2022 - Selfies: Royal Photographic Society Women in Photography (Virtual Exhibition)
2022 - Photo London: ECAD Gallery
2022 - Art of ‘1’: ECAD Gallery, London
2021 - 6th Biennial of Fine Art & Documentary Photography: Gallery FotoNostrum, Barcelona
2021 - Circle, Pollen Collective: Gallery at 44 Russell Street, London
2021 - Travers Smith CSR Art Programme 2021/22: Travers Smith LLP, London
2021 - Photofusion SALON/21: Photofusion, London
2021 - Bloom: Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita, USA
2021 - Here, I Made This - Dialogues of Distance, One Paved Court, Richmond
2020 - Fix Photo Awards, LA Noble Gallery, Judge’s Choice (Virtual Exhibition)
2020 - I Was Here: An Exhibit of Womxn in Photography: all SHE makes (Virtual Exhibition)
2020 - 14th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards Exhibition: Gallery FotoNostrum, Barcelona
2018 - The London Ultra, Free Painters and Sculptors: Bargehouse Gallery, London
2018 - Photofusion SALON/18: Photofusion, London
2018 - The Muse Residency Competition, Summer Show: The Muse Gallery, London
2018 - Tokyo International Foto Awards, Winners Exhibition: ICA Gallery, Tokyo
2018 - MA & Other Post Graduates 2018 Exhibition: Atkinson Gallery, Somerset
2016 - Moscow International Foto Awards, Winners Exhibition: Na Kashirke Gallery, Moscow
2016 - Arte Laguna Prize, Finalists Exhibition: Arsenale, Venice
Awards:
2023 - 20th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards: Digital Manipulation and Collage, Honourable Mention
2021 - PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris: Nature, Honourable Mention
2021 - 16th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards: Still Life, Runner-up and Two Honourable Mentions
2021 - Tokyo International Foto Awards: Fine Art, Still Life, Honourable Mention
2020 - PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris: Fine Art, Still Life, Two Honourable Mentions
2020 - Visual Art Open 2020: Highly Commended
2019 - 14th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards: Fine Art, Honourable Mention
2019 - PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris: Fine Art, Still Life, Honourable Mention
2019 - 13th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards: Still Life, Honourable Mention
2018 - Nominated for RPS 100 Heroines Award
2018 - Tokyo International Foto Awards: Fine Art, Landscape, Honourable Mention
2017 - Photofusion Prize: Work selected, MA Photography Final Show
2016 - Tokyo International Foto Awards: Fine Art, Still Life, Two Honourable Mentions
2016 - PX3 Prix de le Photographie Paris: Fine Art Series, Honourable Mention
2016 - Moscow International Foto Awards: Fine Art, Still Life, Honourable Mention
2016 - Fine Art Photography Awards: Conceptual and Fine Art categories, Nominee
2016 - La Grande Photo International Photography Awards: Still Life, Finalist, High Distinction
2016 - Arte Laguna Prize Venice: Photographic Art, Finalist
2015 - Travers Smith Art Awards 2015/16
2014 - PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris: Fine Art Series, Honourable Mention
Residencies
2024 - Pouch Cove Foundation Artist Residency Program: Newfoundland, Canada
2023 - Olympiada (with Pollen Collective): Greece
2022 - Pouch Cove Foundation Artist Residency Program: Newfoundland, Canada
Collections
Private collections in UK and Europe
Print and Online Publication
2024 - Where Women Create Magazine, ‘Through the Lens’ profile, February
2023 - Art Seen Magazine, Winter Edition, November
2023 - The Localist at thehoxton.com, ‘Ask the Artist’ interview, August
2021 - Forbes, ‘Frieze Week London and Beyond: 5 Essential Exhibitions to See’, October
2020 - Lens Magazine, Issue 74, November, p. 92-99
2018 - Natural History Museum Blog
2015 - Art Attack
Education and Qualifications
2016 -17 - MA Photography (Distinction), London College of Communication
2011-15 - BA (Hons) Photography (1st Class), University of Westminster
Helping Artists Keep Going
Axis is an artist-led charity supporting contemporary visual artists with resources, connection, and visibility.