User:Poyntz7/Araminta de Clermont

Araminta de Clermont new article content ...

Araminta de Clermont (born July 18 1971) is a British photographer. She is known for her digital and medium format environemntal photography, such as her explorations of South African 'number' gangs and teenage rites of passage.

BIOGRAPHY

charles birkin de Clermont's mother, Jennifer Birkin (b.1941) is the eldest daughter of [[www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Birkin)     (fifth baronet; d.1986), a prolific writer of horror stories and the editor of the Creeps Libray of anthologies. de Clermont's great Aunt, Sir Charles Birkin's elder sister, [|Freda Dudley-Ward(nee Birkin; d.1983), was notable for being [[www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII_of_the_United_Kingdom|Edward VIII's mistress]] from 1918-23. De Clermont is married to the writer and addictions specialist Cosmo Henry Villiers Duff Gordon, eldest son of Sir Andrew Duff Gordon of Halkin (8th baronet) and Grania Villiers-Stuart of Dromana.

EDUCATION AND CAREER

After taking a degree in architecture at the Bartlett (part of University College London (UCL)), de Clermont was one of the first students to do post-graduate photography studies at Central St Martin's College of Art and Design. She worked in the mid-1990s as a photojournalist at The Independent newspaper, before relocating to Cape Town, South Africa, in 2004, where, from 2005-6, she studied photography at the Ruth Prowse School of Art. Her work as a freelance photographer and photojournalist has appeared in UK publications such as the Guardian, Independent, Times, Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times, and in all major South African publications, especially the Sunday Times magazine.

de Clermont came to international attention in 2008 with her Life After series, an exploration of the visual currencies of belonging, as expressed in the prison tattoos of ex-members of South African numbers gangs. This was exhibited in Berlin (Germany), Boston (USA)and Cape Town (South Africa) and also featured in a Guardian (UK) centre-spread. In 2010, de Clermont won the prestigious Spier Contemprorary Prize for photography (South Africa), for images taken from the 'New Beginnings' series. In recent months, her work has been exhibited by the Trustman Gallery in Boston, by the Michael Hoppen gallery in London, by the Joao Ferreira gallery in Cape Town, and has been part of the 'Strengths and Convictions' installation at the Nobel Peace Prize Centre in Oslo (Norway), while also showing at the Welsh Photographers Gallery (in Cardiff, Wales). In 2009, images from Before Life, her series on teenage 'prom queens' from disadvantaged Cape Flats communities, were exhibited at the National Gallery in Cape Town (South Africa). In 2010, de Clermont's Matric Queens series was featured in the Spectrum section of the Sunday Times magazine (UK), in Colors magazine (Italy and EU), and in Marie-Claire (USA). An image from Life After was used as the poster for the 2010 Wellcome Trust Skin exhibition. Her environmental portraiture has been included in KING ADZ and V and A book.

EXHIBITIONS/WORKS

PUBLICATIONS

GALLERIES (NYC, CT, London)