Dawn Parsonage is an artist, photographer, collector and comedian originally from Oxford. Known for her collection of over 10,000 found photographs, collected over 20 years, she draws on her archive to inspire her contemporary photography practice.
Her debut solo show, The Boring Exhibition, was held at the Bermondsey Project Space, London, 2019. The exhibition playfully explored boredom through photography, film and interaction via her found photography and newly created body of work.
Her first publication The Boring Book, accompanying The Boring Exhibition can be found in the libraries of the Royal Photographic Society and the Martin Parr Foundation.
"Found photography has fascinated me since I was 14 - these tiny fractions of seconds trapped on a piece of paper. But when these photographs are lost that moment is also lost forever, along with all the things it could tell us. I'm less interested in the big historical events, but more the personal moments that were so important to someone that the picture was taken and treasured. These images are often overlooked and discarded, seen as having no value now the names of the people staring out at us are long forgotten. But there are treasures to be found if we just stop and look.
The major theme of my collection is instances of real emotions - people laughing, crying, being in love, doing all of the things that make us universally human.
To me these moments feel so delicate and ephemeral that they usually disappear as soon as we go to photograph them. When we see a camera, we check ourselves and suddenly become aware of what we are doing and how we are feeling. Genuine emotions caught on film are rare, yet images of people taken while bored, as featured in the Boring Exhibition, feel like the ultimate kind of unadulterated intimacy."
Dawn studied Graphic Design at Brighton University before becoming a director for Green.TV and the BBC.
She now works from her studio in Peckham, London.
Features and interviews
LensCulture
deVolkskrant Newspaper (Netherlands)
Metro Imaging
Intrepid Cameras
BBC
Metro Newspaper
thevignettes.co.uk
Group exhibitions
Peckham24 2019 - PUSH, Brightrooms. Peckham Levels.
D.I. - direct input - Muddy Yard, British Columbia, Canada 2018
The Great Divide - OVADA, Oxford, UK 2018
D.I. - direct input - Muddy Yard, Wimbledon, London, UK 2018
Reclaim Photography Festival - May 2018
URL Love - Muddy Yard, Brixton, London, UK 2018
Solo exhibition
Boring Exhibition
Bermondsey Project Space, London, 2019
Talks
London Institute of Photography - June 2018
Red Rolled and Seen, Bright Rooms, Peckham Levels, London March 2019.
Additional
Saatchi Gallery - START fair - OPEN DOORS, London 2018.
Whitechapel Gallery, London. - 2003 - The world’s largest signed and numbered limited edition artwork by Dan Eatock. Part of the group which numbered the artwork for this world record on location at the gallery.
Projects
- Boring People“Dawn Parsonage’s “Boring Exhibition” brilliantly highlights the private struggles we all face when bored - the struggle to find meaning, to find ways to occupy our restless minds - and shares these intimate and often funny moments with the rest of us. The result is charming, deeply human - and definitely not boring.” Dr Erin C Westgate, Social Psychologist, Ohio State University. Dawn Parsonage’s debut exhibition - The Boring Exhibition, was first shown at the Bermondsey Project Space, L
Work history
Promo DirectorBBC
- Broadcast Centre, Shepherd's Bush, London W12, UKFull Time
Award winning senior promo director. Writing and directing adverts, trailers and idents for the BBC across all channels as well as writing and directing adverts for commercial companies such as Barclays. Campaigns included:
- Directing idents and branding elements for BBC Two, CBBC and CBeebies.
- Launch of Horrible Histories on CBBC.
- Launch of In the Night Garden.
- Worked closely with Aardman to create a series of Christmas shorts for CBeebies.
- Radio 4 Desert Island Discs animated promotion.
- Co-creative on the BBC Royal Wedding campaign.
Skills
- Photographic Direction
- 35mm Film Photography
- Historical Research
- 120 Film
- Fine Art
- Photography
- Photographic Printing
- Curating Photography
- Art
- Comedy Improvisation
Education
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BA Graphic DesignThe University of Brighton
- Mithras House, Lewes Rd, Brighton BN2 4AT, UK
Awards
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Judges ChoiceFIX Photo Festival
Unfamiliar
Burgess Park Peckham, April-June 2020
Deal, August 2020
C-Type Kodak Duratrans, presented in a lightbox.
When you are in the same house, walking in the same park, surrounded by the same things it’s hard to see them anymore. There is no shock of the new, no big revelation. I wanted to escape by re-seeing the everyday.
I have a large collection of found photography and photographic equipment, and I looked to this to see what I could compile to give me a new view of the world.
The system I’ve been experimenting with is employed entirely in camera with a mixture of lens-based filters. This is exactly as the camera saw it. And as I walked around the park looking through the layers of glass it looked like a completely new world. The most mundane of spaces became the most
fascinating. I feel like I have unearthed a hidden other world within Burgess Park - a place away from Covid and the tragedy of what’s happening. I genuinely feel more free.
As lockdown has eased, I’ve continued Unfamiliar beyond Burgess Park. Now I can venture out of London once more I have broadened my search - seeking the overlooked across the UK.
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Black and White Prize 2019Lensculture
Finelist - Boring People