PLAYING AND REALITY

VITA
EJ MAJOR
As an artist EJ Major explores and interrogates the function of narrative, which she often uses to destabilize the photographic
anchor and open up spaces of becoming in her work.
Working with both digital and analogue technologies Major is interested in time and the staged index. The attributes of
stillness and time understood in relation to the photograph and film (moving image) are shifting in the digital age. Fluidity
and pause have become characteristics at large, rather than attributes of each medium per se. Major’s photographic pieces
often involve performance and seek to challenge the veracity of the photographic portrait finding an authenticity in a notion
of self-portraiture that involves acting.
In 2011 EJ Major won the Salon Photo Prize and was awarded a Solo Show at Matt Roberts Gallery in London. She held
her first solo show at Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow 2008. Playing and Reality, showing at Forum fur Fotografie in
Cologne from January 2016, showcases her major works over the last ten years.
Selected group shows include: Feminine Masculine curated by Federica Chiocchetti at Photo 50, Liberties at Collyer
Bristow Gallery London, I Love You, Tenderpixel Gallery, London, Helsinki Photography Triennial, Helsinki City Art Museum,
Finland, Format 2009 - Photocinema, International Photography Festival, Derby, ICY, Minnesota Centre for Photography,
Minneapolis, USA, As serious as your life, Bildmuseet Umea, Sweden, Girl Parade, Australian Centre for Photography,
Sydney, Australia, The Emergence of The Digital Portrait, Clampart Gallery, New York.
Major has also self-published a number of books and has been a member of Artists Book Co-operative since 2011.
www.ejmajor.co.uk
LIST OF IMAGES
Cover Image
Every Day in November / When Nothing Will Do –
detail (2015)
2
Every Day in November / When Nothing Will Do –
detail from film (2015)
4
From the series Marie Claire RIP (2007)
1985_read fiction; 1985_hid in fear; 1985_tried hard
1986_dread it; 1986_hoard fire; 1988_carried on
1989_hear rain; 1997_i did it
8 -11
From the series Shoulder to Shoulder
Contact Sheet I – detail (2009)
Contact Sheet II – detail (2010)
12 -13
Venus Vanitas (2009) Seriously Damaged by Attack
(2009)
14-17
From the series love is… (2004-2007)
18
From the series Every Day in November / When
Nothing Will Do – detail (2015)
20
From the series Shoulder to Shoulder
Contact Sheet III – detail (2011)
26-27
From the series love is… (2004-2007)
28-29
From the series Shoulder to Shoulder
Stepping into the Archive I (2011)
Stepping into the Archive II (2011)
30
Self Portrait with Slasher Mary (2010)
Back Cover
From the series love is… (2004-2007)