ABOUT
Gemma Pepper is a British artist and photographer living in Switzerland. She studied photography at Llandrillo College, Rhos-on-Sea, North Wales, Great Britain and at the University of Derby, England, Great Britain. She also graduated with a Master of Arts ZFH in Art Education, with a Specialization in Curatorial Studies at the Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland in 2021. Her analogue collages and fine art photographs have been presented and published internationally and are held in private and public collections.
In her work practice, she seeks to suspend and transcend time and space, always searching for the connection between the past and the present. Further she explores the meaning of nostalgia and memory photographs as aesthetic objects and cultural artifacts. Accordingly, the following questions are always central to her work. What does a photograph do? What ideas and visions of the world's future can photographs reproduce by recontextualizing them into something new?
In her collages and assemblages, artist Gemma Pepper transforms old photographs of people and places into other realities. By adding found objects such as glass, thread, buttons and shells, she opens a window to another world. She shows reconstructed realities that are sometimes beautiful, ironic and sometimes disturbing.
Awards
2023
Honorable Mention Annual Photography Awards
2022
Honorable Mention ND Awards - Special Open Theme
Winner Vienna International Photography Award - Free Subject
Shortlisted International Photography Award - One Shot Colour
Shortlisted Lucie Foundation, Carte Blanche - Object Category
Shortlisted Fine Art Photography Awards - Open Theme
Shortlisted Sony World Photography Organisation - Creative Category
2013 - 2021
Winner Emerging Photographer Award - Feature Shoot
Shortlisted Bolton Art Prize
Shortlisted Brighton Student Art Prize
Shortlisted Neo Art Prize
Winner Community Foundation Award Derby
Winner Museum of Derby Award
2013 - 2021
- Winner Emerging Photographer Award Feature Shoot
- Shortlisted Bolton Art Prize
- Shortlisted Brighton Art Prize
- Shortlisted Neo Art Prize
- Winner Community Foundation Award Derby
- Winner Museum of Derby Award
Follow her on Instagram @gempepper to see her latest work.