John Darwell is an independent photographer working with museums and galleries on projects that reflect his interest in social and industrial change and his concern for the environment and issues around the depiction of mental health.
 
John is Associate Senior Lecturer in photography at the University of Bolton and a part-time lecturer at the University of Cumbria.
 
He will shortly be completing practice led PhD research entitled ‘A Black Dog Came Calling: The Visualisation of Depression Through Contemporary Photography’.
 
His work has been exhibited, and published, widely nationally and internationally, including exhibitions in London, Amsterdam, the USA, Mexico, South America and the Canary Islands, and is featured in a number of important collections including the National Museum of Photography Film and Television, Bradford, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
 
Past projects include ‘The Big Ditch’ on the Manchester Ship Canal, ‘Regeneration’ on the demise of the steel industry in Sheffield, ‘Scratching the Surface’ on the quarries of the English Lake District, plus a trilogy of projects based around nuclear history, this work has taken him to sites around the world that have become notorious due to their nuclear connections, including Los Alamos, the Trinity Site, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Three Mile Island, Sellafield and Chernobyl.
 
John has just completed shooting a major project, supported by the Arts Council of England North West, entitled "Not Starting from Here". This work can best be described as a psychological ‘journey’ loosely based on the west coast of Cumbria that follows its 80 mile coastline along the north west of England.
 
To date he has had six books of his work published. Most recently ‘Dark Days’ based on the 2001 UK Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic (Dewi Lewis Publishing March 2007) and ‘Committed to Memory’ a twenty five year retrospective published by Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery (2007).