Sukey Parnell

Grace & Liberty from Women of an Uncertain Age

ABOUT WORK

Primarily a portraitist, Sukey's personal work centres around feminine identity, generation and the family and, particularly, the representation of age.

Awarded a studentship in September 2009 to study ‘The transaction of the photographic portrait and its role in contemporary narratives of ‘femininity’ and the 
representation of age’, her PhD combines theory and practice. Her work has sprung out of a desire to reveal the hidden psychic transitions that accompany female middle- and old age and the attendant change in relation of the individual to their mortality and the gaze of society.

Excerpt from the catalogue for Reflexions exhibition at the Light Gallery, London:

"... Individual narratives are transposed into an allegorical form ... evoking a sense of otherworldliness, the unseen behind the seen, the transcendent and symbolic within the everyday ... recurrent motifs - thresholds, mirrors, portals - hint at larger rites of passage within a personal encounter."

Pete Smith, Senior Lecturer, TVU

CAREER

Sukey Parnell graduated from an MA in photography at the close of 2007 and was awarded a PhD studentship in September 2009 by Thames Valley 
University. She has received a number of awards, notably, as a two time finalist in the Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery. Two prints, of comedian Bill Bailey and Dame Joan Bakewell, have recently been acquired for the national archive. Sukey has recently spoken and presented work at the Wellcome Collection and at the inaugural LPA forum and her portraiture has appeared in national publications and magazines.

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ALSO FEATURED IN

Website: www.sukeyparnell.com
LPA Portfolio

AWARDS

Bronze Award, Let's Face It 5 Series, 2009, London Photographic Awards
Commended, Let's Face It 5 Series, 2009, London Photographic Awards
Finalist, Let's Face It 5 Series, 2009, London Photographic Awards
Finalist, Let's Face It 5 Single Image, 2009, London Photographic Awards
Highly Commended, Let's Face It 4 Series, 2008, London Photographic Awards
Finalist, Photographic Portrait Prize 2007, National Portrait Gallery
Finalist, Nikon Discovery Awards 2007
Finalist, Photographic Portrait Prize 2006, National Portrait Gallery.
Finalist London Photographic Awards, Let's Face It 2, 2006
Winner Still Life, Tetley Photographic Competition 2006
Winner, Keeping It Unreal, Focal Press Competition 2005
Finalist, LPA Photoart - Illusion, 2004
Winner Best Portrait 2002, Digital Photographer Magazine.

EDUCATION

Currently studying for an MPhil/PhD
MA in Photography (Distinction)

COLLEGE

Thames Valley University

EXHIBITIONS

Currently on display: 2010 People of Today, National Portrait Gallery
2010 Photograph of the Month, National Portrait Gallery
2009 Let's Face It 5, Calumet Gallery, London
2008 Photographic Portrait Prize, Lowry, Manchester
2008 Let's Face it 4, Calumet Gallery, London
2007-8 Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London
2007 Reflexions, Light Gallery, London
2007 Photographic Portrait Prize, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales
2007 Photographic Portrait Prize, Museum & Winter Gardens, Sunderland
2007 Nikon Discovery Awards, Olympia, London
2006-7 Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London
2006-7 Free Range, Truman's Brewery, London
2006 Let's Face It 2, Calumet Gallery, London

PUBLICATIONS

Independent on Sunday
Saga Magazine
Textile View
Sunday Magazine
Blues & Soul
Restaurant
Radio Times
Guitarist
Focal Press
Caterer & Hotelkeeper
The Colour Scheme Bible, Firefly Books