Ben Harman, Director of Stills: Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, speaks to Thomas Whittle. Whittle’s practice encompasses photography, painting, drawing, publishing, organising and writing often bringing these mediums together. His work attempts to navigate the duality of definition, ambiguity of usefulness and diluted purpose of the quiet and unassuming two-dimensional image. The work investigates time within production as well as time suggested by materials and methods.

Recently, Whittle co-organised the exhibition IMAGE DRUM with artist Adam Shield at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2019) and held the solo exhibition, I Against I: Part IIII, at Stills Centre for Photography, Edinburgh (2018). Whittle has curated the following exhibitions: Greetings, Mauve, Vienna (2019); These fingers read sideways, MONOMATIC, Edinburgh (2018) and RIFF, Baltic Project Space, Newcastle (2014). The twelfth edition of his ongoing project, Slide Night is due to be held at Stills in 2020. In 2016, Whittle founded Long Distance Press, a small publishing company, with artist Adam Shield. To date they have published 14 books. Recent publications include, Your Space is Only a Line, My Mate Bill Blake, and Camper Vans Deuce (all self-published) as well as Right On published by Foundation Press and Tessex? published by Image Text Ithaca Press. Whittle is founder of the curatorial project MONOMATIC, a roaming project space. He has exhibited work in Manchester, London, Worcester, Newcastle, Liverpool, Toronto, Munich, Dortmund, Vienna, Brussels, Los Angeles and Istanbul.

For more info: @thomasjwhittle (instagram)