Born in November 1979 in Aldershot, UK.
I grew up in Northumberland, and following periods in Devon and Newcastle, I've lived in Reading since 2006.
I'm an artist working with photography (often double-exposure photography), as well as video, film, text, and found objects. I make artwork about my experience of and relationship to place, land, and the natural world. I often respond to places in the context of particular people whose life and/or work is associated with those places. I explore the land on foot and by bicycle, never by car. Trespassing is quite often integral to my practice.
I'm also a lecturer in film studies at the University of Reading, with a record of publications in the fields of film, photography, art, literature, theatre and music. These days my research interests are increasingly concerned with social and critical theory, psychoanalysis and mysticism; especially the work of Norman O. Brown, Terence McKenna, and Carl Jung, and to some extent, the work of the Frankfurt School (Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, Theodor Adorno).
Between 2016 and 2020 I was mostly working on a project called everything seemed to be listening (funded by Arts Council England), which has its own website. There are some limited edition prints from that project for sale in its online shop.
Please contact me if you wish to purchase limited edition prints of any of my other images. You can also buy prints here, but at a significantly greater cost than if you contact me directly.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
July-Aug 2021: New Work, The Pond Gallery, Snape Maltings, Suffolk
Oct-Nov 2020: everything seemed to be listening (part three - all new work), The Old Fire Station, Oxford
Sep-Oct 2018: everything seemed to be listening (part two - all new work), Fine Foundation Gallery, Swanage
June 2017: everything seemed to be listening, Rye Creative Centre, Rye, East Sussex
GRANTS/AWARDS:
September 2019: Culture Fund Grant awarded by Oxford City Council - £1k.
August 2019: Project Grant awarded by Arts Council England - £13k.
May 2018: Project Grant awarded by Arts Council England - £11k.
May 2018: Grant awarded by the Fine Family Foundation - £1k.
November 2016: Grant for the Arts awarded by Arts Council England - £15k.
September 2006: Postgraduate Research Studentship awarded by University of Reading - £37k + fees.
EDUCATION:
PhD in Film and Fine Art - University of Reading, 2011.
MA (Distinction) Modern and Contemporary Literature and Film - University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2006.
BA (Hons) Media Arts - University of Plymouth, 2003.
PUBLICATIONS:
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles:
Book Chapters:
Book Reviews:
Photographic publications:
Foster, D. (2015), Under the Transit of Saturn (Reading: Detopia Books). ISBN: 978-0-9576736-2-5.
Foster, D. (2015), Detopia: Volume Two (Reading: Detopia Books). ISBN: 978-0-9576736-1-8.
Foster, D. (2013), Detopia: Volume One (Reading: Detopia Books). ISBN: 978-0-9576736-0-1.
TEACHING:
2021 – present: Lecturer in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading.
2017 – 2021: Sessional Lecturer in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading.
2011 – 2012: Course Tutor in Film Studies, Workers' Educational Associaton.
2007 – 2010: Sessional Lecturer in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading.
ARTIST RESIDENCIES:
July 2018: Durlston Country Park and National Nature Reserve, Dorset, UK.
April 2012 - June 2012: Mount Tremper Arts, Mount Tremper, NY, USA.
FEATURES ON MY WORK:
June 2020: Featured Photographer in On Landscape issue 208
October 2017: everything seemed to be listening featured on Inside the Outside.
January 2012: Detopia featured in Artvehicle issue 60.
GROUP SHOWS and WORK IN GALLERIES:
Five works from everything seemed to be listening on show at L'Artishe Gallery, Dorset, 2018
Eight works from everything seemed to be listening on show at Rye Art Gallery, East Sussex, 2017-18
Three works from everything seemed to be listening on show at Avocet Gallery, East Sussex, 2017-18
Spectrum, PS Mirabel, Manchester, 2016
Sixty, Lubomirov / Angus-Hughes, London, 2016
COLLECTIONS:
My work is held in numerous private collections in both the UK and the USA.
TALKS, WORKSHOPS, EVENTS:
September 2018: Photography workshops with A-level photography students and DoE scheme participants.
September 2018: In conversation with David Southwell, Durlston Country Park, Dorset.
September 2018: Conscious Photography Workshop, Durlston Country Park, Dorset.
June 2017: A walk and talk around Nash Country: a guided 'photowalk' and lecture in Rye and Iden, East Sussex.
June 2017: In conversation with Dave McKean, Rye Creative Centre, Rye, East Sussex.
June 2017: 'On the Spirit of Nash Country' - a talk given at Rye Creative Centre, Rye, East Sussex.