Rob Ball

Rob Ball is a Senior Lecturer, founder of Obsolete Studios, Director of The Burton Gallery and Director of The South East Archive of Seaside Photography.

Rob joined the Photography Programme as a Senior Lecturer in 2009. Graduating with a Masters Degree from The University of the Arts London in 2005, Rob makes work about coastal communities. As a practice-based researcher Rob’s output is predominantly visual, frequently realised in the form of exhibition and publication. Dreamlands was published by Dewi Lewis in 2015, Coney Island in 2017 and Funland: A Journey Through the British Seaside in 2019.

Selected Exhibitions

Seaside: Photographed, Turner Contemporary, Margate, 2019 / John Hansard Gallery 2020 / Grundy Blackpool 2021
Lessons of the Hour with Isaac Julien, stills and tintypes, Memorial Art Gallery / Metro Pictures, New York, March 2019, now touring
L'espace secret, Martigny, Switzerland, September 2018
New Defence Project, Coalhouse Fort, Tilbury, Aug 2018
Beside The Sea (Resort Studios Show), Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury, Aug 2017
The Itinerant, Margate Festival, July 2017Tintype Studio, The Photographers' Gallery, London, July + Oct 2015
Light Waves, Resort Studios, Margate, October 2015
Art Car Boot Fair, Margate, August 2015
Dreamland, The Photographers' Gallery, London, June 2015
Sea Bathers: Reflections and Responses, Tintype Studio, Margate, May 2015
Capturing Light, Silverprint, LCC Moose on the Loose, May 2015
Unremarkable Stories book, On Landscape Project #1, Guest Projects, London 2014
Unremarkable Stories, Exchange, Illinois State University 2013
Obsolete Studios, Turner Contemporary 2013
The Collected, Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury 2013
Obsolete Studios, Format Festival, Derby 2013, 2015
Obsolete Studios, Pie Factory, Margate 2012
Paper Round#2 at The Royal Academy Summer Show 2012
Unremarkable Stories (work in progress), Burton Gallery, Broadstairs 2012
Ways of Looking Festival, Bradford 2011
Margate PhotoFest, Margate 2010
The Line of Lividity, Primo Alonso, London 2009
Breathe, East Thames Gallery, Stratford, London 2008
The Redemptive Beauty of Life After Death, Bonnington Gallery, Nottingham 2007

Selected Publications / Awards / Presentations

Dreamlands Presentation at Coney Island Museum, July 2016
Dreamlands by Dewi Lewis , June 2015
Dreamlands and SEAS Photography Lecture, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, 2015
Shadows Symposium, Camberwell College of Art, 2015
Beyond the View (New) Perspectives on Seaside Photography exhibition, conference and publication edited by Rob Ball and K.J. Shepherdson, 2014
Dreamlands and SEAS Photography Lecture, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, 2015
Unremarkable Stories by Rob Ball and K.J. Shepherdson, Burton Press 2012
Unremarkable Stories at Prix du livre, Arles 2012
Photograph of the Month at The National Portrait Gallery, London July 2009
The Collector’s Guide – Humble Arts Foundation, March 2009
EXIT Magazine, Machines, Autumn 2008
Camera Austria – 98 2007
Magenta Foundation – Emerging Photographers, Publication 2006
Creative Review – Photography Annual, October 2006