Robin Friend

Friend was born in London, UK, but from an early age lived in Melbourne, Australia. He returned to live in England permanently with this family when he was 14. He went on to study photography at the University of Plymouth and the Royal College of Art. He has two children with his partner Seren Colley and they live in the town of Lewes, East Sussex.

Robin Friend's Bastard Countryside is an amalgamation of 15 years worth of work, journeying across the English countryside. Originally made for separate, unrelated projects, the pictures that make up this extensive body of work in time fused together to form this single, more expansive project. Published by Loose Joints in 2018. The title, Bastard Countryside, was a term first coined by French poet and novelist Victor Hugo in Les Misérables whilst describing the "city of Paris as an “amphibian”, stretching out into the countryside and devouring everything in its path",{{cite web |last1=Warner |first1=Marigold |title=Bastard Countryside by Robin Friend |url=https://www.bjp-online.com/2018/11/bastard-countryside-by-robin-friend/ |website=British Journal of Photography |publisher=British Journal of Photography |access-date=2020-08-14}} “somewhat ugly but bizarre, made up of two different natures.”{{cite web |title=The 'magical sadness' where nature meets the man-made |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1shMnHxL8kBVfSWqyw8vZpg/the-magical-sadness-where-nature-meets-the-man-made |website=BBC |publisher=BBC Arts |access-date=2020-08-14}}

The project deals with the idea of the collision of the human and non-human. Through the meticulous use of his 5x4 large format view camera the photographs “are given heightened effect through exaggerations of colour and composition, embodying a friction between British pastoral ideals and present reality.”{{cite web |title=IN PRINT: BASTARD COUNTRYSIDE - ROBIN FRIEND |url=https://www.culturalbulletin.com/digitalbulletin/2019/1/12/in-print-bastard-countryside-robin-friend?rq=robin%20friend |website=Cultural Bulletin |publisher=Cultural Bulletin |access-date=2020-08-14}} Within scenes that feel like traditional landscapes, our ideas of it are intruded, often by pollution, decay and WWII debris in this “mixed-up meeting-zone of rural and urban; where city frays into country."{{cite book |last1=Greenhalgh |first1=Adam |title=Cultural Bulletin Issue D 2020 |date=July 2020 |publisher=Antenne Books |location=London |pages=20 |url=https://www.culturalbulletin.com/magazine/issue-d |access-date=2020-08-14}}

Friend says “I see it almost as an anxious nature. We're all anxious about what the future holds and I feel like that is inherent in a lot of the pictures. I think that you couldn't be a human without being worried about the kind of planet we're leaving to our children.”{{cite web |last1=Charles Wilson |first1=Jacob |title=Dystopian shots of Britain's rural edgelands |url=https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/dystopian-shots-of-britains-rural-edgelands/ |website=Huck |publisher=Huck |access-date=2020-08-14}}

Winged Bull in the Elephant Case “is an immersive performance for the screen about preserving our cultural heritage in the face of violence and aggression."{{cite web |last1=McGregor |first1=Wayne |title=WINGED BULL IN THE ELEPHANT CASE |url=https://waynemcgregor.com/productions/winged-bull-in-the-elephant-case |website=Wayne McGregor |publisher=Studio Wayne McGregor |access-date=2020-09-14}} At the start of the Second World War, the National Gallery's art collection was buried in the Manod slate mines in Snowdonia for safe keeping. Winged Bull in the Elephant Case “dramatises the journey of a lost painting that takes human form, as it strives to get back to the gallery."{{cite web |title=Winged Bull In The Elephant Case |url=https://www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/productions/winged-bull-elephant-case/ |website=Illuminations |publisher=Illuminations |access-date=2020-09-14}} This engaging piece combines various dance forms and was filmed underground in the National Gallery. The work features choreography by Wayne McGregor, Charlotte Edmonds, Botis Seva and Bonetics, performed by Company Wayne McGregor, Alessandra Ferri, Bonetics, and Far From The Norm. The production was written and directed by Robin Friend.

He had his first solo show at the National Gallery of London in 2018. It coincided with a film piece called Winged Bull in the Elephant Case he wrote and directed, as a collaboration with the choreographer Wayne McGregor. It told the story of the National Gallery during World War II when the galleries collection was hidden in a slate mine in North Wales.{{cite web|last1=Stubbs|first1=David|title=Saturday's best TV: Performance Live: Winged Bull in the Elephant Case; Below the Surface|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/mar/17/saturdays-best-tv-performance-live-winged-bull-in-the-elephant-case-below-the-surface|access-date=2020-03-16|work=The Guardian}}{{cite web|title=Manod: The Nation's Treasure Caves|url=https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/past/manod-the-nation-s-treasure-caves|access-date=2020-03-16|website=The National Gallery|publisher=The National Gallery}}{{cite web|title=Winged Bull in the Elephant Case|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09wwkrq|access-date=2020-03-16|website=BBC|publisher=BBC}}{{cite web|last1=McGregor|first1=Wayne|title=WINGED BULL IN THE ELEPHANT CASE|url=https://waynemcgregor.com/productions/winged-bull-in-the-elephant-case|access-date=2020-03-16|website=Wayne McGregor|publisher=Wayne McGregor}} His ongoing project Bonfire Prayers explores what happens on Bonfire night in the town of Lewes, East Sussex. Commissions

In 2011 he photographed 120 artists for the Thames & Hudson book Sanctuary: British Artists and their Studios.{{cite web|last1=& Hudson|first1=Thames|title=Sanctuary Britain's Artists and their Studios|url=https://thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/sanctuary-britains-artists-and-their-studios-hardcover|access-date=2020-03-16|website=Thames & Hudson|publisher=Thames & Hudson}} The book was followed by Art Studio America in 2013, d documenting the private worlds of 115 Americant living artists.

Bastard Countryside {{ISBN|978-1-912719-04-4}} – published by Loose Joints with an essay by Robert Macfarlane.{{cite web |title=Robin Friend - Bastard Countryside |url=https://loosejoints.biz/products/bastard-countryside |website=Loose Joints |publisher=Loose Joints |access-date=2020-03-16}}

• 2019 Emerging Photographer Fund Finalist{{cite web |title=EPF 2019 FINALIST |url=https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2019/10/robin-friend-bastard-countryside/ |website=burn magazine |publisher=burn |access-date=2020-07-27}}
• 2018 Royal Photographic Society Environmental Bursary{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}
• 2016 Syngenta Award, Open winner{{cite web |title=Syngenta Photography Award |url=http://growconserve.syngentaphoto.com/pages/finalists/robinFriend.html |website=Syngenta |publisher=Syngenta |access-date=2020-07-27}}
• 2011 reGeneration Award{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}
• 2009 The Photographers Gallery Award{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}
• 2009 Winner, Merlin Entertainment/Tussaud's Award for Fine Art{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

• 2018 Manod: The Nation's Treasure Caves, National Gallery, London{{cite web |title=Manod: The Nation's Treasure Caves |url=https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/press-and-media/press-releases/manod-the-nation-s-treasure-caves |website=The National Gallery |publisher=The National Gallery |access-date=2020-07-27}}

• 2020 Festival ImageSingulières, Sete{{cite web |title="Bastard countryside" de Robin Friend |url=http://www.imagesingulieres.com |website=ImageSingulières |access-date=2020-12-02}}
• 2019 The Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London{{cite web |title=Robin Friend 266 - TOWER BLOCKS, EAST RESERVOIR, BASTARD COUNTRYSIDE |url=https://se.royalacademy.org.uk/2019/artworks/robin-friend/266 |website=Royal Academy |publisher=Royal Academy |access-date=2020-03-16}}
• 2019 Royal Photographic Society International Photography Exhibition 161, Bristol{{cite web |title=The Royal Photographic Society returns with its 161st International Photography Exhibition |url=https://www.royalalberthall.com/about-the-hall/news/2019/may/the-royal-photographic-society-returns-with-its-161st-international-photography-exhibition/ |website=Royal Albert Hall |publisher=Royal Albert Hall |access-date=2020-03-16}}
• 2017 Syngenta Award, Somerset House, London{{cite web |title=THE SYNGENTA PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD EXHIBITION |url=https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/syngenta-photography-award-exhibition |website=Sommerset House |publisher=Sommerset House |access-date=2020-03-16}}
• 2016 The Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London{{cite web |title=1221 - BIRCH & STEEL |url=https://se.royalacademy.org.uk/2016/artworks/robin-friend/1221 |website=Royal Academy |publisher=Royal Academy |access-date=2020-03-16}}
• 2015 Demimonde, Amberwood House, London{{cite web |title=Demimonde |url=http://slateprojects.com/exhibitions?view=2015.01.10-demimonde |website=Slate Projects |access-date=2020-12-07}}
• 2015 The Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London{{cite web |title=Summer Exhibition 2015: Royal Academy |url=http://theglamorousanorak.blogspot.com/2015/06/summer-exhibition-2015-royal-academy.html |website=The Glamorous Anorak |publisher=The Glamorous Anorak |access-date=2020-03-16}}
• 2015 London's Burning, ICA, London{{cite web |title=London Burning: Portraits from a Creative City |url=https://archive.ica.art/bulletin/london-burning-portraits-creative-city |website=ICA |publisher=ICA |access-date=2020-03-16}}
• 2013 Rosphoto, Saint Petersburg{{cite web |title=Photography exhibition showcases hot new international talent |url=https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/1246/regeneration-exhibition-rosphoto-showcases-top-talent-world |website=The Calvert Journal |publisher=The Calvert Journal |access-date=2020-03-16}}{{cite web |title=reGeneration2: tomorrow's photographers today |url=http://photography-now.com/exhibition/92431 |website=Photography-now |access-date=2020-12-07}}
• 2013 With Sorrow Snare, solo show, Zero10, London{{cite web |title=Photography: Passionate, fascinating editorial work from Robin Friend |url=https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/photography-robin-friend |website=Its Nice That |publisher=Its Nice That |access-date=2020-03-16}}
• 2012 Taylor Wessing, National Portrait Gallery, London{{cite web |title=Nudes, actors, Mennonites: the Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize 2012 – in pictures |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2012/sep/05/taylor-wessing-portrait-prize-in-pictures?page=with%3Aimg-2 |work=The Guardian |access-date=2020-03-16}}
• 2012 Immortal Nature, Edel Assanti, London{{cite web |title=Immortal Nature at Edel Assanti Private View Wednesday 25th January 2012 |url=https://fadmagazine.com/2012/01/25/immortal-nature-at-edel-assanti-private-view-wednesday-25th-january-2012/ |website=Fad Magazine |publisher=Fad Magazine |access-date=2020-03-16}}
• 2011 Ghosts & Nightmares, Historial de la Grande Guerre, Péronne{{cite web |title=Fantômes et cauchemars Beauvais |url=https://www.laurentfievet.com/en/bexhibitions/310/fantomes-et-cauchemars-beauvais-france-espace-culturel-and-peronne-france-historial-de-la-grande-guerre |website=Laurent Fiévet |publisher=Laurent Fiévet |access-date=2020-12-07}}
• 2011 reGeneration, Aperture Gallery, New York{{cite web |title=Tomorrow's Photographers Today |url=https://collectordaily.com/regeneration2-tomorrows-photographers-today-aperture/ |website=Collector Daily |publisher=Loring Knoblauch |access-date=2020-12-07}}
• 2011 Spirit Level, Go Modern, London{{cite web |title=Photographer Robin Friend's group show 'Spirit Level' opens this evening |url=http://onesix7.blogspot.com/2010/12/photographer-robin-friends-group-show.html |website=One Six 7 |publisher=One Six 7 |access-date=2020-03-16}}
• 2010 reGeneration, Musee de l'Elysee, Lausanne{{cite web |title=reGeneration2 - Tomorrow's Photographers Today |url=http://www.elysee.ch/en/exhibitions-and-events/detail/news/flash-forward-festival-toronto/ |website=Musée de l'Elysée |publisher=Musée de l'Elysée |access-date=2020-03-16}}

Friend's work is held in the:

• Martin Parr Foundation{{cite web |title=Martin Parr Foundation |url=https://www.martinparrfoundation.org/about/ |website=Martin Parr Foundation |publisher=Martin Parr Foundation |access-date=2020-07-27}}
• Eisler Foundation{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

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Category:1983 births

Category:Living people

Category:British photographers