Steve Edwards joined the Open University as Research Lecturer in Art History in 1997. After a first degree in Fine Art, he was awarded an MA in the social history of art from the University of Leeds. In 1996 he received his PhD for a thesis on nineteenth-century theories of photography. During 2006 Dr Edwards was visiting professor in art History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In addition to writing extensively on the history of photography, he regularly produces essays on contemporary art and on art and social theory. His work has been translated into six languages.
Dr Edwards is the editor of two Open University textbooks: Art and its Histories: a Reader (Yale University Press, 1996) and with Paul Wood Art of the Avant-Gardes (Yale University Press, 2004). In 2006 he published two books: The Making of English Photography, Allegories (Penn State University Press) and Photography: a Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press). He also recently edited the special issue of the Oxford Art Journal dedicated to the work of Jeff Wall (30:1) and has since joined the editorial board of the journal. He is on the editorial board of Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory.
Dr Edwards regularly organises conferences and is a convenor for the research seminar ‘Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture’, held at the Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Studies, University of London.
He is currently working on research projects on image copyright and piracy; contemporary art and contemporary capitalism; and photography, socialism and feminism at the turn of the twentieth century.
History and theory of photography; Marxist and socialist thought; Contemporary art; Art, work and industrial knowledge; Film and video, Art theory; Cultural theory; Historiography; Utopia; ‘Globalisation’.
Photography: A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford University Press, 2006; Swedish edition: Fotografi – en introduktion, Raster Förlag, 2007) Find out more about this book
The Making of English Photography, Allegories, (Penn State University Press, 2006) Find out more about this book
Oxford Art Journal, Guest editor, Jeff Wall Special Issue, 30:1, 2007
Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory
‘The Colonisation of Utopia’, in Jennifer Harris (ed.), William Morris: ‘ministering to the swinish luxury of the rich’, (Whitworth Art Gallery, 2004; republished 2007), 12-40
‘A ‘Pariah in the World of Art’: Richter in Reverse Gear’, in David Green (ed.), Where is the Photograph?, (Photoforum, 2003; Spanish translation 2007), 31-46
Web version [PDF file]: www.photo-forum.org.uk
‘The Accumulation of Knowledge or, William Whewell’s Eye’, in Louise Purbrick, (ed), The Great Exhibition of 1851: New Interdisciplinary Essays, (Manchester University Press, 2001), 26-52
‘“Poor Ass!” (A Donkey in Blackpool, 1999)’, Oxford Art Journal, Jeff Wall Special Issue, 30:1, 2007, 39-54
‘Produkcija Objektivnosti V Fotografiji Zgodnjega 19. Stoletja’, Borec: Revija Za Zgodivino, Anthropologijo in Kniževnost, 635-638, LVIII, 2006, 163-81 (in Slovene)
‘The Dialectics of Skill in Talbot’s Dream World’, History of Photography, 26:2, 2002, 113-118 (Slovene translation 2007)
‘Factory and Fantasy in Andrew Ure’, Journal of Design History, 14:1, 2001, 17-33
‘The Shattered Utopia of James Mudd and William Lake Price’, History of Photography, 20:4, 1996, 342-344 (republished 2007)
‘Photography, Allegory and Labor’, Art Journal, 1996, 38-44
‘The Machine’s Dialogue’, Oxford Art Journal, 13:1, 1990, 63-76
‘Secrets from the Streets: An Interview with Martha Rosler’, Ten.8 International Quarterly, 35, 1990, 36-43 (republished 2005)
‘The Snapshooters of History: Passages on the Postmodern Argument’, Ten.8, International Photographic Quarterly, 32, 1989, 2-21 (republished 2003; Portuguese translation 2006)
‘Optical Truths and Visual Pleasures: Allan Sekula and a Theory for Photography’, Ten.8, 26, 1987, 37-39
‘Disastrous Documents’, Ten.8, 15, 1984, 12-23 (republished 1986)
See also Open Research Online for further details of Steve Edwards’s research publications.
