Dr Gary Bratchford
Senior Lecturer in Photography, MA Course Leader (Photography)
School of Arts and Media
Gary Bratchford runs photography projects, writes, and teaches Photography at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), where he is also the Course Leader for the postgraduate (MA programme) in Photography.
He is the President of the International Sociological Associations’ Visual Sociology Research Group and co-editor of the Journal Visual Studies. Gary also runs the Visual Culture Research Group and supervises postgraduate projects related to photography, visual culture and social practice.
Gary’s initial research interests focused on the use and function of photography and performance by Israeli and Palestinian non-violent protesters, specifically for online, international audiences between 2005-2011 as well as photographic and artist practices of visualising power, identity and space in this region. Please see Research and Publications for new research topics.
Gary welcomes PhD enquiries based on the topics of visual culture, photography, socially engaged practice, Israel/Palestine, power, in/visibility, verticality and aerial vision.
- PhD Visual Culture, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2016
- MA War, History & Culture, University of Manchester 2010
- PGDE University of Bolton 2010
- BA (Hons) Film and Media Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2003
- AHRC Fully Funded PhD Scholarship: Awarded for Manchester Metropolitan University (2011-2015)
- Visual Sociology
- Photography (history and practice of)
- Visual Culture
- Visual Methods and Socially Engaged Practices, Wellbeing & Health
- Co-Editor - Visual Studies Journal
- President - International Sociological Association's Visual Sociology Research Committee
- Scientific Committee - Art Style Magazine
- Board Member - Open Eye Gallery
Gary’s research focuses on three domains of visual practice and critical thinking:
Firstly, Gary is co-developing research (with Dr Dennis Zuev) on verticality, new aerial visions and scopic regimes. The project is entitled ‘A Sociology of the Sky’. This project’s first output is an edited collection of papers in the Visual Studies Journal (forthcoming 2020) as well as a core component of their co-edited monograph, Visual Sociology: Practices and Politics in Contested Spaces (forthcoming 2020, Palgrave). A subsequent, edited volume with Palgrave is due in 2023.
Secondly, though his collaborative, community-based practice with artist, Robert Parkinson, Gary uses Socially Engaged approaches to examine how photography can positively impact upon health and wellbeing in community settings.
Recent publications in the field include his book, As and When: Documenting Socially Engaged Practice (2017), Socially Engaged Photography and Wellbeing: Reflections on a Case Study in the Northwest of England (Journal of London Primary Care, 2018) and an essay for Stephen Willat’s CONTROL magazine in 2019.
Lastly, Gary is writing, researching, and developing visual methods to map urbanisation and gentrification in Manchester and Salford, UK with recent outputs including: “Visualising the invisible: a guided walk around the Pendleton Housing Estate, Salford, UK” (2019) and a chapter in an edited volume, Gentrification Around the World Vol 1: Gentrifiers and the displaced (Palgrave, 2020).
Use the links below to view their profiles:
- Institute for Creative Practice Research
- Lancashire Centre for Global Development
- Centre for History and Public Engagement with the Past
- Photography Research Group
- Arts and Wellbeing Network
- Know Thy Neighbour - Socially Engaged Photography commission funded by the Open Eye Gallery & Paul Hamlyn fund (2019-2021)
Telephone:+44 (0) 1772 893045
Email: Email:Dr Gary Bratchford
Use the links below to view their profiles: