Damian Sutton

My work is mainly in the contextual understanding of photographs and photographic practices in the past and the present. For over twenty years I have taught history and theory to art, design, and photography students at Glasgow School of Art, Middlesex University, and here at Coventry. I supervise doctoral projects in photography and arts practice and theory.

I am currently working on a book on the context, creation, and legacy of Alexander Gardner's 'Portrait of Lewis Payne' (1865).  Spin-off projects include research on the Gardner group of Civil War photographers, on on the contribution of John C. Taylor to Civil War photographic culture, and on the contested histories of Civil War imagery.

In development

I am currently developing project ideas in:

- the contribution of practice research in art history and the academy

- photography, ethics, and consent

Study with me

Contact me if you are interested in doctoral study in the following areas:

- photography and cultural memory (from 1839 onwards)

- history and theory of practice and research in the academy in art and design 

Fully funded PhD opportunity for 2024!

https://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-opportunities/research-students/research-studentships/becoming-a-doctoral-candidate-from-expert-to-learner-and-back-again/

Doctoral Supervisions (* indicates practice-led research)

Current

Ben Campion: ‘Art, Agency and Ethics: A Critique of Aesthetic Scepticism in the Philosophy of Photography’ (Warwick, supervisor)

https://www.midlands4cities.ac.uk/student_profile/ben-campion/

Shaheen Merali: Shifting Paradigms: The role of political Black art and curation in de-canonisation and decolonisation of the art field since the late 1980s Britain.

https://www.midlands4cities.ac.uk/student_profile/shaheen-merali/

Completed

*Alex Murphy: ‘An Inert State: Tracing a double-defiance of death via photographic poiesis’ (Middlesex, Director of Studies then supervisor) https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/37329/

*Carla Hamer: ‘Photographic encounters: A performative framework for practice-led

ethnographically-informed research’ (Middlesex, Director of Studies then supervisor)

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02560046.2016.1205321?casa_token=sk96SsXaV3YAAAAA:YCsmXvZGY3BJ20UD_zHlyamu0_5KG9ul1dfNpk33ElZJyewA9UChFNiR3Otg0c72TgpmsrDSwgxeXA

Darren Berkland: ‘The gestural assembling of the selfie’ (Coventry, supervisor)

https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/the-gestural-assembling-of-the-selfie

*Rebecca Key: ‘From Sketchbook to Gallery, Script to Screen:Drawing with Objects in Installation & Mise-en-scène’ (Coventry, Director of Studies)

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rebecca-Key

Francien Broekhuizen: ‘Postfeminist wedding cultures: temporality, materiality and embodiment’ (Coventry, supervisor)

https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/postfeminist-wedding-cultures

*Nina Bacos: ‘A White Woman’s Photographic Travel Journal’ (Glasgow School of Art, Co-director of Studies)

http://radar.gsa.ac.uk/4895/