Anna Fox monograph

Anna Fox is one of the most significant photographers to emerge from the new wave of critical colour photography of the 1980s. She is regarded as part of a group including Paul Reas, Paul Seawright and Nick Waplington, which made incisive critical documentary work around the consumerist society of that decade. As one of the few women to have practiced in this idiom, her contribution is additionally significant.

Val Williams’ monograph explores development of Fox’s career through a success of projects beginning with ‘Workstations’ which documented office life and ‘Friendly Fire’ which revealed in photographic documents of the “war games” played by enthusiastic hobbyists, the latter included in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s influential ‘War Works’ exhibition.

Through ‘Cockroach Diary’ (1999) Fox chronicled an already fragile household beset with an infestation of cockroaches which was exhibited at the New Natural History exhibition at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford 1999. Williams’ text considers works of this kind to reflect on the importance of the artist’s book on the development of Fox’s photography, a domain in which she has made any contributions. Williams’ also considers the recent collaboration with singer/songwriter Alison Goldfrapp, as Fox has developed a large and strong body of work which has also marked her move from photography to video.

The research has involved documenting and analysing all of Fox’s creative work. A major research resource was Williams’ interview with Fox for the Oral History of British Photography housed in the British Library. The volume also contains biographical information and extensive photographic reproductions selected by Williams and Fox.