Email: S.J.Bray@soton.ac.uk
Simon is currently a Post Graduate Researcher at Winchester School of Art, engaging with the One Horton Heath housing development in Eastleight and the surrounding communities through socially engaged photography to consider their understanding of the ongoing change in their locality. The project is supported by Eastleigh Borough Council and John Hansard Gallery.
Simon Bray is an artist based in Winchester, who utilises photography, text, music and audio to explore our experiences of place, time, loss and our connection to one another.
His work has been shown at The Southbank Centre, Manchester International Festival, Open Eye Gallery, Brighton Photo Biennial, SheffieldMuseum, Wales Millennium Centre and featured by The Guardian, British Journal of Photography and on BBC One.
His book, ‘Dear Kairos’, won the FE+SK Book Award 2023 and was published by Skinnerboox. Made over two weeks on the streets of Athens, the book explores the Ancient Greek notions of time, inviting the viewer to consider the linear Kronos and the more serendipitous Kairos. Dear Kairos was shortlisted for the Arles des Rencontres Prix du Livre 2023.
His project Loved&Lost invites participants to explore their experience of loss through restaging a family photograph and recording an interview. It has been presented in galleries across the UK and featured on The One Show and BBC Breakfast TV, reaching an audience of over 10 million.
His latest body of work, ‘Searching Beneath The Silence’, published as an artist book and exhibited at The Arc, Winchester, quietly explores the potential of the eternal through the beauty and fragility of spiritual and natural spaces. The work also featured an audio narrative piece.
He also runs socially engaged photography workshops in collaboration with prisons, hospitals, galleries, community groups and charities such as Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, The Prince’s Trust and Manchester City Council.
As a commercial and editorial photographer, he has previously worked with The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Telegraph, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, Audible, V&A, National Geographic Traveller, The Wildlife Trust, NFU, NHS, Waitrose and Columbia Records.
In 2021, he was invited by Manchester Cathedral to document the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth Il during her last public visit to the city.
Simon has previously worked as creative producer for Martin Parr and Manchester Art Gallery as well as for the Jerwood Fellowship with Manchester International Festival and lectured in photojournalism at Bournemouth University.
He studied music at Manchester University, where he majored in performance as a solo percussionist and composition. He has performed and played in bands since the age of thirteen, playing across the UK, EU and US at festivals such as SXSW, Latitude, V Festival, Manchester International Festival, and performing sessions for BBC Radio 1 at Maida Vale, XFM, Channel 4 and MTV2. He continues to play and perform regularly with local orchestras and musicians, as well as releasing his own music under the moniker S.J. Bray
