Feminism. Photography. Riot.
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The Photographic Theorist
Website: www.thephotographictheorist.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhdPhotographer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thephotographictheorist
"Stereotyping is a kind of blindfold that enables many to ignore the fact that the marginalised and highly stigmatised are first and foremost people, individual human beings like everyone else."
Born in Melbourne, her father, a highly decorated Vietnam War hero died serving on duty as a Detective when she was a baby; she was raised her mother with her three older sisters in the Australian countryside. Camille graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in biological sciences from La Trobe University in 1997 and with postgraduate studies in criminology from the University of Melbourne in 1999. After a successful career working in community correctional services that began in 1999, where she managed community-based offender rehabilitation programs including the sex offenders' register, she immigrated to the United Kingdom in 2005 to enhance her career in criminal justice. In 2007 she resigned from working with young offenders to pursue a less institutionally defined career as a freelance photographer and sex worker. In 2009 she was shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Art summer exhibition for her Berlin street photography.
Between 2012 and 2014 she collected several awards and magazine commissions for her less traditional avant-garde wedding photography work. In 2015 she quit commercial wedding photography and undertook a Masters Degree in digital photography and creative media arts. Going on to graduate with a distinction from London South Bank University, achieving a first for her thesis that answered the question, is it possible to reclaim the word whore through creative practice as research?)
Her current research interests lie in the way marginalised communities use photography in online spaces as a tool for visual activism and political change. Returning as a commercial photographer in high-end artistic commissions, though her art she specialises in re-imagining existing photographs. She has extensive knowledge relating to the self-publishing of photo-books and zines, both as cultural and research practices. She has further interests in contemporary photography with an emphasis on theories of the author as an editor, working with other peoples' images and exploring issues related to politics, sexuality, violence, feminism, surveillance, censorship and identity.
Camille is currently undertaking a PhD with one of the United Kingdoms leading institutes for visual research, the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM), School of Media, Arts and Design, at the University of Westminster. Her current PhD candidature is Whoretography: The Woman Sex Worker as Image-Maker; a critical analysis of the representation of sex workers in online spaces. Camille's groundbreaking research has already led to several academic publications and critical recognition within academia and the arts.
Organizer
Camille Melissa
Organizer