Gordon MacDonald (editor)

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Gordon MacDonald (born 1967) works with photography as an artist, writer, curator, press photographer and educator.

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He is the founding editor of Photoworks magazine and was head of publishing at Photoworks in Brighton. He co-founded Brighton Photo Fringe in 2003; and was for a time its chair of the board of trustees. He was co-founder and co-director, alongside Stuart Smith, [1] of the visual arts publisher GOST. MacDonald is also half of the collective MacDonaldStrand, with his wife Clare Strand. [2]

Life and work

'Ideas not careers' logo by MacDonald. GordonMacDonald.png
'Ideas not careers' logo by MacDonald.

MacDonald was born in East Kilbride, Scotland, in 1967. He worked in photography studios and as a professional photographic printer before studying for a BA in Editorial Photography at the University of Brighton in the 1990s. [3] He has also worked as a photographer, writer, photography curator, press photographer and educator.

MacDonald is the founding editor of Photoworks magazine [4] He stood down as editor at issue 17, in October 2011. During His editorship, MacDonald interviewed photographers and filmmakers Richard Billingham, Martin Parr, Nick Broomfield, and Jeff Wall, and wrote a number of texts on photographers including Osamu Wataya, Martin Lange, Lisa Barnard, Daniel Stier, and Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.

MacDonald was also head of publishing at Photoworks, the Brighton-based organisation for contemporary photography. [5] He produced and edited his own It's Wrong to Wish on Space Hardware (2003) and The House in the Middle (2004), as well as Joachim Schmid: Photoworks 1982–2007 (2007); Anna Fox: Photographs 1983–2007 (2007); Fig. by Broomberg and Chanarin (2007), Stuart Griffiths: The Myth of the Airborne Warrior (2011), [6] [3] and Daniel Meadows: Edited Photographs from the 70s and 80s (2011).

He co-founded Brighton Photo Fringe in 2003, the fringe festival to Brighton Photo Biennial; and was for a time its chair of the board of trustees.

MacDonald was until September 2016 co-director, alongside Stuart Smith, [1] of the visual arts publisher GOST. [7] GOST published Mass by Mark Power, Brisees by Helen Sear, Chateau Despair and Hyenas of the Battlefield, Machines in the Garden by Lisa Barnard, UKG by Ewen Spencer, Skirts by Clare Strand, Spill by Daniel Beltra, Maidan – Portraits from the Black Square by Anastasia Taylor-Lind, The Winners by Rafał Milach, Punks by Karen Knorr and Oliver Richon and Hong Kong Parr by Martin Parr.

MacDonald is half of the collective MacDonaldStrand, with wife Clare Strand, who make idea based projects. They live in Brighton and have three children.

The Beachers by MacDonaldStrand. TheBeachers.jpg
The Beachers by MacDonaldStrand.

Publications

Exhibitions curated by MacDonald

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References

  1. 1 2 "Smith Design".
  2. ↑ "Photoworks : Commissioning and Publishing Photography". Archived from the original on 7 September 2012. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  3. 1 2 "The Myth of The Airborne Warrior". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Festival: Krakow Photomonth". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  5. ↑ "Source: Graduate Photography Online - 2015 Selections - Gordon MacDonald". Source (photography magazine) . Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  6. ↑ O'Hagan, Sean (4 November 2011). "The art of war photography". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  7. ↑ "Gordon MacDonald and GOST", GOST, 14 September 2016. Accessed 22 January 2020.
  8. ↑ "Conspiracy Week opens at The Photographers' Gallery". www.itsnicethat.com. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  9. ↑ Sooke, Alastair. "The strange photographs used to 'prove' conspiracy theories". BBC. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  10. ↑ "Inside the greatest UFO archive in history". Huck Magazine. 2 February 2017. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  11. ↑ Luke, Ben (31 January 2017). "The Photographers' Gallery shines a light on conspiracy theorists". Evening Standard. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  12. ↑ "Krakow Photmonth 2017". GUP Magazine. 29 May 2017. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  13. ↑ "Tish Murtha comes to The Photographers' Gallery". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  14. ↑ Moroz, Sarah (27 June 2018). "This Working Class Photographer Documented Her Community in Industrial England". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  15. ↑ AnOther (14 June 2018). "The Forgotten Photographer Who Captured Britain's Social Crises". AnOther. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
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