Artist Statement

From January, photographer Graeme Vaughan takes up an artist residency at the Studio in QUAD for Format 11.  Between then and the start of the festival he will be creating the office of a private investigator; an investigator of the public realm.  These investigations are of Derby.

Graeme is drawn to the everyday in his search. His photographic process borrows investigative tools from the Situationists.  The practices were devised to subvert our experience of the everyday; to be taken off usual routes and navigations to find the source of meaning.  In this project, Graeme takes the character of the investigator, determined to find previously hidden clues that exist within the everyday life of the city and that may hold the solution.  

The subjects of these investigations come from local Derby news, although there is more than one Derby.  Which of these places the events occurred in, we are not sure.  But the clues to solving them are sought here. The photographs show evidence: they may lead us to meaning, they may point us to some solution, but what is really the question?

Explore the office, examine the evidence for yourself. 

Artist Bio

Graeme Vaughan studied Psychology & Sociology, and completed an M.A. in Social Work before turning to photography. He first worked for the Offender Profiling Research Unit, exploring the relationship between environments and criminal behaviour. 

Through photography he has continued his interest in how the places we know and our everyday lives are connected.  His ongoing 'urban notebooks' are photographic explorations of the everyday spaces in European cities, produced as self-published books. 

He has exhibited across the UK and recently at the PIY -Publish it yourself show in Nogent-sur-Marne, Paris.  Alongside personal works, he has a participatory arts practice which has included commissions with residents of Victoria Square, Manchester (The Dwellings) and St Mark's Estate in Ladywood, Birmingham.

For further information on Graeme Vaughn please see www.photogas.co.uk