Gary Bratchford

Dr Gary Bratchford is an Associate Professor of Photography at Birmingham, City University.

Gary co-edits Visual Studies Journal, Visual Culture in Britian and the Palgrave Book Series, Social Visualities. Gary is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a nominated Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He is also a Trustee of the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK.

From 2016 - 2021 Gary was President of the International Sociological Association’s Visual Sociology Research Group (RC 57). 

In 2023 he was the recipient of the Prosser Award for Innovations in Visual Methods. 

Research Interests:

Gary’s main areas of research include visual sociology, visual culture, and collaborative visual methods which he uses to explore the intersections between vision, visibility and the ways in which image-makers engage with these themes in various contexts and geographies.

Gary works and researches on projects and themes of:

• Vision, verticality and volume through various contexts  and art practices.
• Social practice and visual methods, specifically around notions of co-creation and health/community action.
• Visualizing and visualizations of Gentrification.

As an practice-based researcher/writer, Gary uses mixed-methods approaches, including collaborative, longitudinal socially engaged processes and curatorial practices, to develop a critical understanding of how practice-based research and visual cultures can engender more inclusive and participatory ways to think though a number of issues including health, community cohesion and politics.

His most recent project, a 6 year, site-specific projected supported by the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool and the Paul Hamlyn Fund, yielded multiple outputs including the book and exhibition, As & When: Documentating Socially Engaged Practice (2019), Know thy Neighbour (2019) and Just Between Friends (2021).