Julian Rodriguez

Contact

Julian Rodriguez
About
Teaching and learning
Research

About

I graduated in Photography, Film & Television from the London College of Printing and hold an MA in History of Design. I have led media schools and media departments at London College of Communication (LCC), Falmouth University and University of South Wales and was previously London Correspondent for PDN Magazine (NY) and a columnist and critic for The British Journal of Photography.  In 2004, I co-founded the first-ever Research Centre at the University of the Arts – ‘Photography and The Archive Research Centre' (PARC). In 2007 I was instrumental in creating the Stanley Kubrick Archive at LCC - one thousand boxes of film production materials and Kubrick's personal research library in partnership with Warner Brothers and the Kubrick family. I am currently a Company Director at Impressions Gallery (Bradford) a writer for Taschen (New York) and The Photographers' Gallery (London) and, nominate for Prix Pictet global sustainability prize, and serve on the Advisory Board of the Rory Peck Trust – Rory Peck is the only organisation dedicated to the support, welfare and safety of freelance newsgatherers around the world.

Academic responsibilities

School Head of Department

Qualifications

  • MA History of Design
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Acadmy
  • Clore Leadership Programme
  • Post Graduate Certificate in Art & Design Education
  • Higher Diploma in Photography, Film & Television (London College of Printing)
  • Institute of Incorporated Photographers Professional Qualifying Examination (IIPPQE)
  • Foundation in Art & Design

Teaching and learning

Undergraduate courses taught

Postgraduate courses taught

Research

Research interests include the growing influence photography has on contemporary art and culture and the capacity for photographic documentation to shed more light on history. This includes considering to what extent photography can be objective, thorough and considered source material and, how can photography's propensity to be biased or mislead be assessed?

I have a specialised interest in photography in the USSR (1930-1949) and the ways of engaging with and responding to historic archives, including artists' residencies, to create new work. Current research includes curating an exhibition and book on London's Soho with The Photographers' Gallery London and writing and editing a photo book with publisher Taschen (New York).

In 2003, I co-founded the Photography & The Archive Research Centre (PARC) at London College of Communication.  This included conceiving two projects: the on-line Directory of Photographic Collections in the UK and the NAM themed project triangulating the Stanley Kubrick Archive's Full Metal Jacket holdings with the Vietnam photojournalism of Phillip Jones Griffiths and the writings of cold war journalist Phillip Knightley. PARC was the first designated research centre within University of the Arts, London.

I am the Co-Director of The Visible Institute of Film and Photography (VI) established at Kingston School of Art (KSA) in summer 2017.

Selected Outputs

SHOT IN SOHO.  Edited by Julian Rodriguez & Karen McQuaid. Published by Prestel, London 2019. 

Tales from the City of Gold, Photographs by Jason Larkin, Text: Julian Rodriguez & Mara Kardas-Nelson. Published by Kehrer, Heidelberg, 2013.

Shifting Sands, Photographs by Guy Martin, curated and conceived by Julian Rodriguez, Mal Stone and Suzanne Bull.  Exhibited at The Poly Falmouth (2012) and published by Falmouth Press (2012).

Roman Vishniac. Photographs by Roman Vishniac, Text: Julian Rodriguez. Published by Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, 1998.

Successful PhD Completions

Sophie Beard, PhD (2010): We Seem to Know You: The family photograph in the British Newspaper 1986-2005 (Director of Studies). 

Sara Davidmann, PhD (2007): The reflected image and the presentation of the self: a Photographic study of transsexual transformation in sex changers (Director of Studies).

John Tran, PhD (2006): Responses to the scopic regimes of Taisho and pre-war Showa photography (Second Supervisor). 

Research student supervision