Wendy McMurdo (born 1962, Edinburgh, Scotland) specializes in photography and digital media. She attended Edinburgh College of Art, Goldsmiths, University of London and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York where she first became interested in photography.
Her work centers on the relationship between technology and identity, and she has produced several influential bodies of work which explore this theme. Her work often explores the role digital technologies play in the construction of identity, particularly in relation to the psychological world of children and young people.
Her first one-person show In a Shaded Place - the digital and the uncanny - was toured extensively by The British Council in the mid-90s. Her subsequent exhibition at the Centro de Fotografia Universidad de Salamanca in 1998 resulted in the publication of the first monograph on her work.
She has been included in numerous group shows, including Unheimlich at the Fotomuseum Wintherthur in Switzerland, Scanner, curated by Lawrence Rinder at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, California, The Anagrammatical Body - The Body and its Photographic Condition at the Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz, Austria, and Only Make Believe - Ways of Playing, curated by Marina Warner at Compton Verney, UK (2005).
Her work has been commissioned by The Science Museum and The Photographer’s Gallery in London and The Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, and is in a number of collections including that of the Fotomuseum Wintherthur, The British Council, agnès b, and The National Galleries of Scotland. In addition, she has been appointed Henry Moore Research Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, Leverhulme Special Research Fellow at University of Dundee, Fellow in Photography at Edinburgh Napier University and is currently a Leverhulme Fellow (2010 – 2012.)
Recent projects have included; The Skater, which explores the relationship between adolescence, gaming and virtual environments (published in 2009 by Ffotogallery, UK) and a major exhibition at The Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts in Bath. U.K.
In 2011, she was commissioned by The Photographer’s Gallery in London. Their ‘The World in London’ project for the 2012 Olympics will be showcased around the city during 2012. She is currently developing a major project exploring our growing relationship with social robotics.
Bibliography (selected)
2012: Source –contemporary Photography in Britain and Ireland, Spring, Issue 70 – Wendy McMurdo interview
2010: EXIT, Imagen & Cultura Issue #40, About 10. Rosa Olivares & Associates, S.L. Madrid - portfolio
2010: Sylvia Wolf The Digital Eye: Photographic Art in the Electronic Age. Prestel. New York
2009; Wendy McMurdo: The Skater. Ffotogallery Wales
2007: David Campany (Ed) Art and Photography (Themes & Movements). Phaidon
2005: Only Make-believe: ways of playing - Mary Jacobus, Susan Stewart and Marina Warner, Compton Verney
2004; Charlotte Cotton The Photograph as Contemporary Art (World of Art) Thames & Hudson. London
2000: Wendy McMurdo, Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, Spain
1997; Gilda Williams (Ed) Strange Days - British Contemporary Photography, Charta Press. Milan
How to use our image viewer
Click on any of the thumbnail images to launch the viewer. You can then navigate forward and backward within the portfolio by clicking the left or right side of the enlarged image. Click the add to collection checkbox to automatically add an image to your collection. Image tags or search engine keywords appear below the collections' checkbox and each word or phrase is a link to potentially more image matches.