Introduction
Mark Neville (born 1966) is a British artist specialising in social documentary photography.
Life and work
Neville lives and works in London. He studied Fine Arts at Reading University, Berkshire (B.A.), Goldsmiths' College in London (M.A.) and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, Netherlands. As an artist he is known for working at the interface of art and documentary utilizing photography and films to capture the unique face of working communities.
Neville is best known for his Port Glasgow Book Project, after he spent a year as artist in residence in Port Glasgow in 2004 portraying the town's hardship of Scotland's post-industrial decline in a photographic book which was distributed as a free gift to all members of the community. He has worked on commissioned projects by The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh (Braddock/Sewickley, 2012) and Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute (Fancy Pictures, 2008). His work Deeds Not Words, which addresses the Corby community involved in the toxic waste disposal court case, exhibited in 2013 at The Photographers' Gallery in London. Neville created a body of work based on a three-month residency with the British Army in the Afghan province of Helmand as the UK's official war artist in 2011. Part of The Helmand Work showed at London's Imperial War Museum's Contemporary Art Gallery during its relaunch in Summer 2014.
Awards
- 2018: Shortlisted, Daiwa Foundation Art Prize along with Kate Groobey and Keith Milow
- 2019: Nominated, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2020, London for his exhibition The Blue Skies Project at Fitzrovia Chapel, London. The other nominations were Clare Strand, Mohamed Bourouissa and Anton Kusters.
Publications
- Port Glasgow. Self-published, 2004. Edition of 8000 copies.
- Deeds Not words. 2011. Edition of 500 copies.
- London/Pittsburgh. London: Alan Cristea Gallery, 2014. ISBN 978-0957508576.
- Battle Against Stigma. 2015. Two volumes, one volume has photographs by Neville and text by Neville and Jamie Hacker Hughes, the other volume contains written testimonies from various soldiers.
- Child's Play. 2017.
- Fancy Pictures. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2016. ISBN 978-3-86930-908-8. Includes work from six of Neville's projects. With an interview between David Campany and Neville, "Fancy Pictures".