Richard Billingham

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Richard Billingham (b. 1970) is a noted British photographer and artist.

Billingham studied at the University of Sunderland as a painter, and came to prominence through his candid photography of his family in Cradley Heath, a body of work later added to and published in the acclaimed book Ray's A Laugh (1996). In 1997 he was included in Saatchi's notorious Sensation show of young British artists, at the Royal Academy in London. Also in 1997, he won the Citigroup Photography Prize. He was nominated for the 2001 Turner Prize, for his solo show at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. He has also made landscape photographs at places of personal significance around the Black Country, and more of these were commissioned in 2003 by The Public; resulting in a book. He has also experimented with video films and video projections. In late 2006 Billingham exhibited a major new series of photographs and videos inspired by his memories of visiting Dudley Zoo as a child. The series, entitled "Zoo", was commissioned by Birmingham-based arts organisation, VIVID and was exhibited at Compton Verney Art Gallery in Warwickshire. He now lives in Brighton, and travels widely. He is a lecturer in Fine Art Photography at the University of Gloucestershire.