Sarah Pickering (born 1972) is a British visual artist working with photography and related media including 3D scanning and digital rendering, performance, appropriated objects and print. Her artist statement says she is interested in "fakes, tests, hierarchy, sci-fi, explosions, photography and gunfire." She is based in London.

Pickering's book Explosions, Fires and Public Order was published by Aperture in 2010. She has had solo exhibitions at Meessen De Clercq, Brussels (2009), Ffotogallery, Wales (2009), Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (MoCP, 2010),"Sarah Pickering: Incident Control: Apr 9 — Jun 20, 2010". Museum of Contemporary Photography. Accessed 6 April 2017 and Durham Art Gallery (2013); and was included in Manifesta 11 in Zurich (2016). Her work is held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; MoCP, Chicago, IL; and North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC.

She is a part-time Associate Professor in fine art media at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London."Ms Sarah Pickering: Teaching Fellow". Slade School of Fine Art. Accessed 6 April 2017https://www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/people/academic/spick01/"People > All Staff". Slade School of Fine Art. 3 July 2023

Life and work Pickering was born and raised in Durham, England, and attended Belmont Comprehensive School and Durham Sixth Form Centre. After a foundation course in art and design at Newcastle College (1991–1992), she was awarded a BA (Hons.) in photographic studies at the University of Derby (1992–1995), and a MA in photography at the Royal College of Art (2003–2005)."Locate: A Jerwood Encounters exhibition: Curated by Sarah Williams". Jerwood Foundation. Accessed 18 April 2017

Her artist statement says she is interested in "fakes, tests, hierarchy, sci-fi, explosions, photography and gunfire."

Based in London, she is a part-time teaching fellow in fine art media at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.

"Match, 2015", was a 38 metre long public artwork installed at Castlegate Shopping Centre, Stockton-on-Tees between 2016 and 2017.

Publications Books by Pickering Sarah Pickering - Explosions, Fires and Public Order. Aperture, 2010. .

Publications with contributions by Pickering Vitamin Ph, A survey of Contemporary Photography. Phaidon, 2006. . System Error: War is a Force that Gives us Meaning. Italy: Silvana, 2007. . Edited by L. Fusi and N. Mohaiemen. How We Are Photographing Britain from the 1840s to the present. London: Tate, 2007. . Edited by Val Williams and Susan Bright. In our World, New Photography in Britain. 2008. Milan: Skira. . Edited by Filippo Maggia. Pickering's contribution is on pages 142–151. Foam Album 08. Amsterdam: Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, 2008. . New Light: Jerwood Photography Awards 2003–08. Edinburgh: Portfolio Magazine, 2009. . With a foreword by Roanne Dods, an essay by Martin Barnes, and an afterword by Gloria Chalmers. Theatres of the Real. Antwerp: Fotomuseum Antwerp; Brighton: Photoworks, 2009. . Realtà Manipolate/Manipulating Reality. Alias, 2009. . C International Photo Magazine 09. London: Ivorypress, 2009. . Bruit De Fond/Background Noise. Je Suis une Bande de Jeunes, 2010. . Afterwards: Contemporary Photography Confronting the Past. London: Thames & Hudson, 2011. . Edited by Nathalie Herschdorfer. Public Relations. SAFLE Commission, 2012. . Hijacked III: Australia / United Kingdom. Cottesloe, WA: Big City; Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2012. . Exhibition catalogue. The Photographer's Playbook: 307 Assignments and Ideas. New York: Aperture, 2014. . Edited by Gregory Halpern and Jason Fulford. Staging Disorder. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2015. . Edited by Christopher Stewart and Esther Teichmann. Revelations. London: Mack, 2015. Edited by Ben Burbridge. .

Awards 2005: Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers Photography Prize, Royal College of Art. 2005: The Photographers' Gallery Graduate Award, London."Sarah Pickering Wins The Photographers' Gallery Graduate Award". The Photographers' Gallery, 13 June 2005. Accessed 7 April 2017 2005: Jerwood Photography Award, for Public Order. Other winners were Daniel Gustav Cramer, Nina Mangalanayagam, Oliver Parker, and Luke Stephenson."Jerwood Photography Award 2005". Jerwood Charitable Foundation. Accessed 7 April 2017 2008: Peter S. Reed Award, Peter S. Reed Foundation, USA. 2015: Refocus: the Castlegate mima Photography Prize, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. A commission to produce "Match, 2015".

Exhibitions Solo exhibitions Fire Scene, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York City, 2008. Explosion, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels, 2009. Holding Fire, Ffotogallery, Wales, 2009. Incident Control, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, 2010. Aim & Fire, included Celestial Objects and other works, Durham Art Gallery, Durham, England. Part of The Social: Encountering Photography festival, 2013, for which Celestial Objects was commissioned.

Group exhibitions Part of East International festival, Norwich, UK, 2005. Selected by Gustav Metzger. How We Are: Photographing Britain from the 1840s to the Present, Tate Britain, London, 2007. Curated by Val Williams and Susan Bright."We are here: Photographing Britain", Tate, 1 May 2007. Accessed 17 April 2017. 'Theatres of the Real' – Contemporary British Post-Documentary Photography, Fotomuseum Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, 2009. Curated by David Green and Joanna Lowry. Manipulating Reality: How Images Redefine the World, Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy, 2009/10. Signs of a Struggle: Photography in the Wake of Postmodernism, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2011. Curated by Marta Weiss. An Orchestrated Vision: The Theater of Contemporary Photography, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, 2012. Living in the Ruins of the Twentieth Century, UTS Gallery, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, 2013. Revelations: Experiments in Photography, Media Space, Science Museum, London, 2015; National Media Museum, Bradford, 2015/16. Co-curated by Greg Hobson and Ben Burbridge. Professions Performing in Art, Manifesta 11, Zurich, 2016. Curated by Christian Jankowski and Francesca Gavin.

Collections Pickering's work is held in the following permanent collections: Victoria and Albert Museum, London: 2 prints Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL: 2 prints"Landmine". Museum of Contemporary Photography. Accessed 7 April 2017"Dining Room". Museum of Contemporary Photography. Accessed 17 April 2017 North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC: 3 prints LACMA, Los Angeles, USA: 1print Brooklyn Museum: 1 print

References

External links

Video interview from 2010 in which Susan Bright gives an introduction to Pickering, who talks about her Public Order series Video interviews about making the "Match, 2015" commission for Refocus: the Castlegate mima Photography Prize