Image © Idris Kahn OBEDaniel C. Blight is a writer, artist, teacher, and student based in London. He is the editor of The Image of Whiteness (SPBH Editions/Art on the Underground, 2019) and the author of the forthcoming Photography’s White Racial Frame (Bloomsbury, 2024).
His visual work includes photography, drawing, and text, which parodies, humourises and critiques commonly consumed, sensed or technologised objects usually taken for granted, revealing the strange ways their meanings are bound up in social systems such as racial whiteness, exoticism, and bourgeois taste.
He has performed at Frieze London and Tate Britain and lectured at MoMA PS1, University of Oxford and Yale University. He has written for publications including 1000 Words, Aperture, Foam, Frieze, the Guardian, Photography and Culture, Philosophy of Photography, Photoworks, and Vogue Italia.
He is Lecturer in Photography, School of Art and Media, University of Brighton, a graduate of the Royal College of Art and a PhD student in the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy at King’s College London.
Contact
Email d.campbell-blight@brighton.ac.uk
Twitter: @danielcblight
Instagram: @danielcblight
CV
For information about my approach to teaching and scholarly research see my profile at the University of Brighton.
Education
2020 – present: PhD, Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy, King’s College London
2006 – 2009: MPhil, Royal College of Art, London
2003 – 2006: BA(Hons) Sound Arts and Design, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Employment History
2017 – present: Lecturer in Photography (Historical & Critical Studies), School of Art and Media, University of Brighton
April 2022: Visiting Scholar, Department of Art & Art History, University of Utah, USA
September 2019: Visiting Scholar, Yale Centre for British Art/ Ethnicity, Race & Migration Programme, Yale University, New Haven, USA
2016 – 2019: Visiting Lecturer, Critical & Historical Studies, School of Fine Art, Royal College of Art, London
2016 – 2019: Content Editor, The Photographers' Gallery, London
2015 – 2016: Visiting Lecturer in Photography, University of Roehampton, London
2014 – 2016: Visiting Lecturer in Photography, Camberwell College of Art, University of the Arts London
2014 – 2016: Visiting Lecturer in Photography, Coventry University
2013 – 2016: Online Editor, The Photographers’ Gallery, London
2012 – 2013: Assistant Talks Programmer, The Photographers’ Gallery, London
2009 – 2016: Visiting Lecturer in Photography (Historical & Critical Studies), University of Brighton
Books
Photography’s White Racial Frame. London: Bloomsbury. 2024.
The Image of Whiteness: Contemporary Photography and Racialization. London: SPBH Editions/London: Art on the Underground. 2019.
Book Chapters
‘Ways of Seeing Whiteness’ in Ducey, K., Feagin, J. and Headley, C. (Eds.) George Yancy: A Critical Introduction. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 2021.
‘A Cloud to the Back’ in Fredericksen, A., Pearlman, N. & Winter, K. (Eds.) Re-launch. (London: UCL Art Museum) 2015.
‘Cold Children’ in Jesson, K. (Ed.) Pat Flynn: Half-life of a Miracle. (Manchester: Manchester Art Gallery) 2015.
‘Underneath’ in Kuimet, P. (Ed.) Notes on Space. (Tallinn: Art Museum of Estonia/Tallinn: Lugemik) 2013.
‘TV Casualty’ in Feuerhelm, B. (Ed.) TV Casualty. (London: AMC Books) 2013.
Selected Essays
‘Love can be rude too’ in Foam: M/otherlands, (Amsterdam: Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam) 2022.
Blight, D. C. and Jiang, Y., ‘Possible Traces of Whiteness’ in Photography and Culture, vol. 15: 1. London: Taylor & Francis, 2022.
‘Images of whiteness: Can we imagine a world without white eyes?’ in The Guardian. (New York: Guardian Media) [online] 2019.
‘How do white people see?’ in Vogue Italia. (Milan: Condé Nast International) [online] 2019.
‘Perfect White Family’ in Buck Ellison: Tender Option. (London: The Sunday Painter) exhibition catalogue essay [online] 2018.
‘Of Water and Triangles’ in 1000 Words ten-year anniversary print edition. (London: 1000 Words Ltd.) 2018.
‘KOUD, SAAI, BLEEK: Het beeld van blankheid’ (Cold, Dull, Ashen: The Image of Whiteness), EXTRA. (Antwerp: Foto Museum Antwerp) 2018.
‘White Gaze: Michelle Dizon and Viêt Lê’ in 1000 Words. (London: 100 Words Ltd.) [online] 2018.
‘Be it in light or shadow: Photography and the Essay’ in Viewpoints. (London: The Photographers' Gallery) [online] 2018.
‘Claimed Memories of Previous Lives’ in Foam. (Amsterdam: Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam) 2017.
‘Path to Clouds’, in Periodo Ipotetico. (Milan: T14 Contemporary) 2017.
‘Incoming: Photography and Whiteness’ in American Suburb X. (California: American Suburb X LLC) [online] 2017.
‘Talking to Myself About Death: Edgar Martins' Siloquies and Soliloquies on Death, Life and Other Interludes’ in 1000 Words.(London: 100 Words Ltd.) [online] 2017.
‘The Time of Prison Writing: Amy Elkins' Black is the Day Black is the Night’ in 1000 Words.(London: 100 Words Ltd.) [online] 2017.
‘Louise Parker: Pieces of Me’ in Foam. (Amsterdam: Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam) 2016.
‘Maxime Guyon: Technological Exaptation’ in Foam. (Amsterdam: Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam) 2016.
Blight, D. C. and Johannesson, A., ‘Photography and the Fanatical Gaze in Åsa Johannesson’s Belonging’ in Philosophy of Photography, vol. 3: 1. London: Intellect Books, 2012.
Exhibitions
Visual Literacy: A Critical Library. Curated by Rica Cerberano, 17 – 20 Oct 2022, Photo Vogue Festival, BASE Milano, Italy.
Telling Pictures: Holly Birtles, Kamal Badhey, Daniel C. Blight, Zoe Childerly, Mathhew Cornford & John Beck, Jasper Goodall, Fergus Heron, Åsa Johannesson, Mark Joste, Rachel Maloney, James William Murray, Annebella Pollen, Xavier Ribas, Epha Roe, Martin Seeds, Kirsty Thomas. Curated by Fergus Heron and Francis Hodgson, 27 Sept – 15 Oct, Edward Street Galleries, University of Brighton, UK.
As Organiser/Curator:
Chandelier Projects
Lectures, Presentations and Performances
2022
The Lemon /How do white people see?, 14th Oct, Frieze Art Fair (at the invitation of Abbas Zahedi, Frieze Artist Award recipient), London.
Visiting Scholar, 6th & 7th April, Department of Art & Art History, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA.
The Image of Whiteness, Centre for Public Policy Research, King’s College London, lunchtime seminar, 24th March.
2020
Contemporary Photography and Whiteness, Self Publish, Be Happy Education, online lecture.
The Image of Whiteness, Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London, UK. (Postponed due to COVID-19).
Open Rooms #8: Photography and Racialisation, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK (with Ali Eisa and Yasmin Gunaratnam).
The Image of Whiteness, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, NL.
The Image of Whiteness, University of Fine Arts of Hamburg, GER.
2019
Photography and Racialisation, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK (with Yasmin Gunaratnam and Ali Eisa).
The Image of Whiteness, Photo Vogue Festival, Milan, IT (with Ekow Eshun and Chiara Bardelli Nonino).
The Image of Whiteness, University Centre Farnborough, UK.
The Image of Whiteness, MoMA PS1, New York, USA (with David Birkin, Sutapa Biswas, Claudia Rankine and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa).
The Image of Whiteness, Yale Centre for British Art in collaboration with the Ethnicity, Race and Migration programme, Yale University, New Haven, USA (with Claudia Rankine and Leah Mirakhor).
2018
The Image of Whiteness, Royal College of Art, UK.
The Image of Whiteness, Photography Studies College, Melbourne, AUS.
2017
‘White Whirlwind: From Racial Equivalence to Anti-whiteness,’ introduction to the symposium What Should White Culture Do? Commissioned by Art on the Underground and hosted by the Royal College of Art, UK.
‘Squid-Eye Thinking,’ Does Photography Need Theory?, pic.london festival and symposium, Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, UK.
‘Photography, Death and Reincarnation,’ Photo Oxford symposium, Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, UK.