Alistair Neil Morrison | |
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| Born | November 4, 1956 |
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| Website | https://alistairmorrison.com |
Alistair Neil Morrison (born November 4, 1956) is a British photographer, known for his work with celebrity portraits and his charitable Legacy projects, including Time to Reflect, Time to Pause, and Time to Connect. [1] [2] [3] More than 80 pieces of his work are held in the primary collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London. [1]
Morrison was born in Lima, Peru. [4] His father, Jamie Ian Morrison, worked in telecommunications for Cable & Wireless Communications in Bermuda, where he met and married Aileen Rose Morrison (née Wingate). Following his posting to South America, the family lived in Peru, Chile, and Argentina, where Morrison spent much of his early childhood. [4]
Upon leaving school, Morrison initially began work at the Bank of England before discovering a deeper interest in the visual arts. [5] At the age of twenty-one, he enrolled as a photography student at Harrow College. [6]
In 1981, during his final year of college, Morrison undertook a six-week project photographing buskers in the London Underground. [6] The resulting collection, Grassroots, was subsequently exhibited in the National Theatre in London. [7] A review of Morrison's work around this time commended his technical proficiency, and notes his "thoughtful approach to the everyday subjects he chooses." [8]
Shortly thereafter, Morrison began receiving commissions for celebrity portraits, working with publications including Vogue , The Observer , The Sunday Times , YOU Magazine , and Esquire , among others. [9] [10] [11]
The beginnings of Morrison's professional career coincided with a broader movement advocating for photography to be recognised with major institutional art collections. [12] This shift was recognised by the 1986 exhibition Twenty for Today at the National Portrait Gallery in London, in which Morrison was invited to exhibit alongside a cohort of emerging British photographers gaining recognition as significant contemporary voices. [12]
Morrison continued to exhibit his work internationally, with shows held in cities including Paris, New York, Palm Beach, Miami, Florence, Berlin, Barcelona, and London. [1] He lived in New York for five years, and worked for a number of publications across America. [13] [ citation needed ]
At the turn of the millennium, Morrison collaborated with UNICEF on Time to Reflect, a portrait project involving hundreds of celebrities and public figures from the fields of music, sport, film and politics. Participants were invited to create self-portraits using a photobooth and contribute written reflections marking the new millennium. [14] Morrison explained, "One of the key themes of this millennium is the fact that we all have an identity and we all have a right to our say. The passport photograph is a universal means of establishing your identity and we were also asking people to identify themselves through the message they give to the world." [15] The project was published as a book in 2002, serialised in The Daily Telegraph , and was the subject of a documentary, Face Booth, with ongoing contributions throughout the 2000s. [2] [16]
Morrison has produced a series of Legacy photographs, applying his style of portraiture to curated group images of notable actors ("The Actors' Last Supper"), sportsmen ("Waiting for Lomu, the World's Greatest Rugby Players"), Britons ("Great Britons"), musicians ("Searching for Apollo"), chefs ("Chefs' Legacy"), and Bermudians ("An Island's Legacy — Postcards from Bermuda"). [1] [17] [18] [13] [19] [20] [4]
In 2017, Morrison (in collaboration with Sir Roger Daltrey, and in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America) created "Searching for Apollo", the first of The Adoration Trilogy. [21] The altarpiece — a forty-panel triptych featuring over 70 iconic men in music, including members of The Beatles, Queen, and Led Zeppelin, among others — was unveiled at the Victoria & Albert Museum in November 2017. [21] The musicians were photographed individually in various settings across the UK and America, and staged against a background of stone archways and tunnels. [21] Morrison told GQ:
The title of the exhibition, Searching For Apollo, is born of the theme of Apollo as the god of music and 'search', which is buscar in Spanish - the origin of busking. So with that idea in mind, it seemed nice to do something looking back at these artists' roots, to get everyone back on the street.
— Alistair Morrison, GQ [19]
In 2020, Morrison created two documentary films: The Real You, a personal exploration of his pursuit for photographic authenticity, and Time to Pause, created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. [1] [3] The latter was awarded Best Public Awareness Cause Campaign at the 2021 Purpose Awards. [22]
Morrison's ongoing project, Immune from Praise and Abuse, marks a departure from celebrity portraiture. The series is focused on authenticity, and sees Morrison turn his lens toward capturing the individual truths of "ordinary, yet extraordinary, people." [23]
In 2023, Morrison began to journey across all 100 counties of the United Kingdom in a converted camper van, repurposed as a mobile studio. In this project, Time to Connect, Morrison engages with local artists and creatives in the creation of a national arts trail, intended to serve as a visual portrait of the nation. [1]
Morrison is a regular invitee to give talks about his works and career to museums and academic institutions. He has conducted courses at The Courtauld Institute of Art, leading discussion on the nature and theory of portrait photography, and examining its historical context. [24] A selection of Morrison's portraits were exhibited alongside impressionist works from The Courtauld's collection. [25]
Morrison's celebrity portraiture includes:
Exhibitions of Morrison's work include:
Morrison has created two films. The Real You, written by Morrison, is a short film that marked his fortieth year as a photographer and explores his career and search for photographic truth in portraiture. [51] [1]
In 2020, Morrison wrote, directed, and produced Time to Pause, documenting a series of personal testimonies from individuals around the world, reflecting on their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The film premiered at the Göteborg Film Festival in 2021. [52]
The film explores the many negative and positive contrasts of lockdown, a different dawn of creativity in art, dance and music, as well as reflecting on everything from parcel-washing to pot-banging and conversations through windows.
— Julie Hamill, "Time to Pause in the Heart of London", OnLondon [53]
Morrison has worked with and supported a number of charities throughout his career, including: