Cig Harvey (born 1973) is a British fine art photographer known for her surreal images of nature and family.[1][2] Her work has been compared to René Magritte and has been described as revealing "the mysticism in the mundane."[3][4] Harvey's work has been exhibited internationally and is included in the collections of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Farnsworth Art Museum.
Cig Harvey grew up in the county of Devon in South West England. She became interested in photography at early age because of the photo portfolios that The Independent published in their Sunday editions.[6] At age thirteen, Harvey began working in a darkroom, which furthered her interest in photography.[6] She received her MFA from Rockport College and in 2005 was selected as one of Photo District News's 30 emerging photographers to watch.[7]
Career
Harvey began her career as an assistant professor at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University where she worked for ten years.[8] Her first solo museum show was held at the Stenersen Museum in Oslo in 2012 in conjunction with the release of her first monograph, You Look At Me Like An Emergency (Schilt Publishing, 2012).[9]
In an interview with The Telegraph about her second monograph, Gardening at Night (Schilt Publishing, 2015), Harvey cited magical realism as a source of inspiration and said "I am very interested in finding magic in the real world and photography reminds me that this world is amazing."[10]
Harvey's third monograph, You an Orchestra You a Bomb (Schilt Publishing, 2017) was inspired in part by her near-death experience in a car accident.[11] She began to shoot in a more documentary style after the accident, which Harvey explains as being inspired by the " [...] idea of the gasp and awe. We gasp when something is beautiful, and we gasp when something is terrible. I'm searching for that push/pull in each image."[12][11]The New York Times review described this series as "carefully recreating that sense of childhood wonder, mixing saturated colors with verdant symbols and engaging text, allowing viewers to contemplate that sense of the unknown, but from a place of joy rather than anxiety."[11]
Her recent work has expanded her focus on familial relationships to her own experience with motherhood and her relationship with her daughter.[13] She was featured in The New York Times in an article titled "Why Can't Great Artists Be Mothers?" rejecting the stereotype that motherhood and artistic dedication are at odds.[3]
In 2017, Harvey was awarded the "Excellence in Teaching Award" from CENTER and in 2018 she was named the 2018 Prix Virginia Laureate, an international photography prize awarded to one woman each year.[14][15]
Harvey was among the five photographers chosen to be included in Return to Cuba: In the Footsteps of Walker Evans (2016), a feature-length documentary retracing the footsteps of photographer Walker Evans.[16]
In 2020, Harvey was selected by The New York Times to participate in Still Lives, a project documenting thirteen photographers' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.[17]
^"PDN's 30 2005". Photo District News. 17 January 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
^"Cig Harvey: Voice Into Vision". PhotoNOLA.com. Retrieved 17 December 2016. She was an assistant professor at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University for ten years, but recently took a leap of faith to devote her life to purely making things.
^"Cig Harvey". CPW.org. Retrieved 17 December 2016. Cig Harvey's photographs have been exhibited widely and are in the permanent collections of major museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY. She was a recent finalist in Prix Virginia, an international photography prize for women, and had her first solo museum show at The Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway, in the spring of 2012 in conjunction with the release of her monograph You Look At Me Like An Emergency, Schilt Publishing, 2012.
^Drinkard, Jane (16 January 2018). "The Beauty of Stillness". The Cut. New York Magazine. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
^"Book Review: Gardening at Night". photoeye.com.com. 15 October 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2016. Harvey's words focus on familial relationships with her husband, daughter and mother and visual representations of the joys and trials of life fill the pages:
