Gordon MacDonald (editor)
Gordon MacDonald (born East Kilbride 1967) works in all areas of photography as an artist, writer, curator, press photographer and educator.
History
MacDonald is the founding Editor of Photoworks magazine and was Head of Publishing at Photoworks, the Brighton based organization for contemporary Photography in Britain. Before this he has worked as a photographer, writer, photography curator, press photographer and educator. He recently stood down as the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Brighton Photo Fringe, which he co-founded in 2003. MacDonald is co-director, alongside Stuart Smith,[1] of the visual arts publishers GOST. MacDonald [2] is also half of the collective MacDonaldStrand who initiate idea based projects.
To date GOST has 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 Rafal Milach, Punks by Karen Knorr and Oliver Richon and Hong Kong Parr by Martin Parr.
MacDonald founded Photoworks magazine in 2003 and in doing so quickly brought it to an international audience, attracting worldwide recognition. He recognised that photography is most relevant when it is discussed in the context of a wider visual culture. MacDonald’s aim was to show work by emerging photographers alongside that by the well-established, bringing freshness to well-known work and attention to the less-known.
MacDonald stood down as editor at Photoworks issue 17, in October 2011. Photoworks subsequent issue (18) has continued with MacDonald’s ethos and methods. During MacDonald’s editorship, he interviewed a number of photographers and filmmakers, such as Richard Billingham, Martin Parr Nick Broomfield and Jeff Wall and had written a large number of texts on photographers including Osamu Wataya, Martin Lange, Lisa Barnard, Daniel Stier and Broomberg and Chanarin.
MacDonald also initiated the publishing activity at Photoworks and produced and edited a large number of books, including Joachim Schmid: Photoworks 1982-2007; Stuart Griffiths: The Myth of the Airborne Warrior; Daniel Meadows: Edited Photographs from the 70s and 80s; Anna Fox: Photographs 1983-2007; Fig. by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin; and It’s Wrong to Wish on Space Hardware and The House in the Middle by MacDonald.
In 2001 he curated the show, It's Wrong to Wish on Space Hardware at the Gardner Art Centre and The House in the Middle (2004) at Towner Art Gallery.
MacDonald was a senior Lecturer at Southampton Institute 2000-2003 and has guest lectured on many other Degrees, MA and PhD courses throughout the country. He has lectured at Tate Britain, London Art Fair, The Baltic, and The National Portrait Gallery. In 1998 MacDonald worked collaboratively with Val Williams and Anna Fox on the Shoreditch Biennale and with Brett Rogers (1998) and the British Council for the Look at Me: Fashion and Photography in Britain 1960-1997 exhibition. He is currently MA external examiner on Goldsmiths course of The Image and Electronic Arts.
MacDonald lives in Brighton and is married to the photographic artist Clare Strand and has three children.
Publications
- The House in the Middle: Photographs of Interior Design in the Nuclear Age. Edited by Gordon MacDonald. Brighton, England: Photoworks, 2004. ISBN 1-903796-14-8. Photographs by Danny Treacy, Paul Reas, John Kippin, Richard Billingham, Jo Broughton, Dirk Wackerfuss, Anne Hardy, John Paul Bichard, The Design Council Archive, the BBC Picture Library, the Collection of Chris Mullen, Protect and Survive and the Los Alamos National Library. Text by Althea Greenan. "Published to coincide with a Photoworks exhibition at the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, in 2004." Edition of 1000.
- It's Wrong to Wish on Space Hardware. Brighton, England: Photoworks, 2003. ISBN 978-1903796047. Edited by Gordon MacDonald, Text by Caroline Smith, photographs by Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, John Paul Bichard, Nichola Bruce, NASA, Richard Purdy, Steve Pyke, Ian Rawlinson and Joan Fontcuberta.
Writing
- Bang bang You’re Dead – Gordon Macdonald Photoworks Issue 11
- Who are Broomberg and Chanarin and why have they done this?
References
External links
- MacDonaldStrand, the collaborative partnership of Gordon MacDonald and Clare Strand
- Ideas and Ideals in Visual Culture
- GOST Books, a photography and visual arts publishers founded by Gordon MacDonald and Stuart Smith