About
Alicia Bruce is an award-winning, working-class photographer, community collaborator, educator, and activist based in Scotland. Her photography sits between documentary and staged imagery focusing on communities, environments and human rights. Alicia Bruce is a member of the collective Women Photograph. Her first monograph ‘I Burn But I Am Not Consumed’ Daylight Books (USA), 2023 documents sixteen years of Donald Trump’s impact on a coastal Scottish community near where the artist grew up.
Alicia’s photographs have been exhibited and published internationally, winning several artists’ residencies and bursaries including the Royal Scottish Academy Morton Award. Her images have been featured in Le Monde, The Times, The Scotsman, BBC News and STV News, and are represented in several public and private collections including the National Galleries of Scotland, St Andrews University Special Collections, UK Parliament, Martin Parr Foundation and The RSA. She recently gave talks at International Centre for Photography and School of Visual Arts in New York.
She is honoured to be featured in The List Magazine’s 2018 Hot 100 “The Edinburgh-based photographer and lecturer tackled domestic violence in her portrait series Violence Unseen at the Stills Gallery in association with Zero Tolerance, photographed Mhairi Black for the 209 Women project, and created the photographic element of the Our World Heritage exhibition at Edinburgh's Tron Kirk. (DP)”
Alicia is based in Edinburgh, Scotland where she is a Teaching Fellow at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. She accepts commissions locally, nationally and internationally. Her commercial portfolio features clients including Reuters, Project Ability, engage, Zero Tolerance, Crisis and more.
Shed studio at Woodend Barn Allotments Residency
SELECTED RECENT COMMISIONS AND CAMPAIGNS
Zero Tolerance, Crisis, Edinburgh World Heritage, NewsDirect, National Galleries of Scotland, Royal Scottish Academy, engage, Project Ability, University of St Andrews, Broomhouse Primary School, The Barn, The European Parliament, NHS, V&A Dundee, 209 Women, Emotionworks
COLLECTIONS
National Galleries of Scotland, Robert Mapplethorpe Photography Collection, Royal Scottish Academy, RSA, Edinburgh Napier University Photography Collection, Ffotogallery, Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, University of St Andrews Photography Collection, Zero Tolerance, Martin Parr Foundation, Various private collections
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 ‘Violence Unseen’ Stills, Edinburgh, UK (Touring commission for Zero Tolerance)
2018 ‘Our World Heritage’ Tron Kirk, Edinburgh, UK
2017 ‘Menie: TRUMPED’ Fix Photography Festival, London, UK
2016 ‘Menie: TRUMPED’ St Andrews Photography Festival, UK
2015 ‘The Sim Project’, RSA, Edinburgh, UK
2015 ‘Digging for Diamonds’, EU Buildings, Brussels, Belgium
2014 ‘Digging for Diamonds’, Woodend Barn, Scotland
2013 ‘Encore’ RWCMD, Cardiff, Part of Diffusion Festival
2013 ‘Menie’ The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, UK
2011 ‘Menie’ Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, UK
2011 ‘Menie’, Belmont Picturehouse, Aberdeen, UK
2011 ‘Menie’, Moray Art Centre, Findhorn, UK
2011 ‘Menie’, Edindocs Film Festival, Edinburgh, UK
2008 ‘Alicia Bruce: Artist in Residence’, Aberdeen Art Centre, Aberdeen, UK
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 ‘LOVE’ Still Not the Lesser’ Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA
2022 ‘This Separated Isle’ Impressions Gallery, Bradford
2022 ‘This Separated Isle’ Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow
2022 ‘This Separated Isle’ Ffotogallery, Cardiff
2020 ‘Mhairi Black MP’, acquired for permanent display at UK Parliament, London, UK
2019 ‘209 Women’ Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK
2019 ‘Cascade’ University of Edinburgh, UK
2018 ‘209 Women’ UK Parliament, London, UK
2017 ‘Ages of Wonder’ Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK
2017 ‘When the Light Shifts’ Glasgow Women’s Library
2015 ‘Collecting Now’ Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
2015 ‘Fleece to Fibre’ National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
2014 ‘Industries’ VU, Meduse, Quebec City, Canada
2014 ‘Industries’ Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow
2014 ‘Fleece to Fibre’ The Fleming Collection, London, UK
2014 ‘Fleece to Fibre’ Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne, Australia
2014 ‘Fleece to Fibre’ Inverness Art Galleries and Museums, UK
2014 ‘Made in Wales’ A Fine Beginning Collective
2013 ‘The Valleys Re-Presented’ RWCMD, Cardiff, Part of Diffusion Festival
2013 ‘Fleece to Fibre’ Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Art Festival
2013 ‘Encore’ Les Rencontres d’Arles, France
2012 ‘Echt? Jetzt!’ Regensburg, Germany
2012 ‘Self Reliance (1841)’ Out of the Blue, Edinburgh Art Festival
2012 ‘Menie’ Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, UK
2012 ‘The Gathering’ Rhubarb Rhubarb, Diemar/Noble Photography, London
2011 ‘Foto8 Summershow’, Host Gallery, London
2009 ‘Feedback Loop’ Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2009 The Scottish BAFTAS
2008 ‘Flood in the Highlands: after Edwin Landseer’ Aberdeen Art Gallery
2008 ‘Flood in the Highlands’ City Arts Centre, Edinburgh, UK
2008 ‘Feedback Loop’ Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK
2006 ‘Napier University: Creative Industries, Degree Show’
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2016 St Andrews University Purchase Award
2015 RSA Muirhead Purchase Award
2014 The Royal Scottish Academy Morton Award 2014
2013 Magenta Foundation Flash Forward Awards Honourable Mention
2013 The Scottish Parliament, Motion S4M-05749
2012 Format Festival/ Synapse Residency Shortlisted
2012 ArtWorks, Artists residential at Hospitalfield House, Arbroath, Scotland
2012 Aberdeen City Council, Funding to exhibit and speak at an International Photography Symposium in Regensburg, Germany
2012 Bursary to attend engage International SummerSchool, Helsinki, Finland
2012 British School at Rome Document Residency, Shortlisted
2011 Ffotogallery, Photographer in Residence at Blaenavon World Heritage
2010 Aberdeen City Council, Visual Arts Award (for film and video works)
2009 Project Slogan Two week residency in artist run space, Aberdeen
2009 Street Level Photoworks, Bursary to attend Rhubarb-Rhubarb International Review
2009 Street Level Photoworks, Bursary to attend Rhubarb-Rhubarb Cultivate
2009 The Jonathan Jones Memorial Prize, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen
2009 Shell, Commended for Aberdeen Art Gallery Exhibition
2009 The Sally Schofield Memorial Prize, Visual Arts Scotland
2008, Aberdeen Arts Centre, Artist in Residence
2007 The Institute of Contemporary Scotland: Young Scotland Programme
2003 Scottish Photographers, Young Photographer Award
SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS
‘I Burn But I Am Not Consumed’ Daylight Books, USA., 2023
‘Surveying the Anthropocene, Environment and Photography Now’ Edited by Patricia Macdonald, Edinburgh University Press. 2022
‘This Separated Isle’ Edited by Paul Sng, Bristol Policy Press, 2021
‘209 Women’, Bluecoat Press, 2019
‘Violence Unseen’, Zero Tolerance, 2018
SSHoP, Studies in Photography, 2016
‘Coming Up Trumps’, Cameracraft, 2016
‘The Glasgow Boys’, Drents Museum, Netherlands, 2015
'‘Aspire’, Project Ability, Glasgow, 2015
‘Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained’ Grant Scott, Focal Press 2014
‘European Prospects’ Ffotogallery 2014
SELECTED TEACHING, CONFERENCES, LECTURES & WORKSHOPS
Fife College, City of Glasgow College (Curriculum Leader), Edinburgh College of Art, Ffotogallery, Edinburgh College College, Street Level Photoworks, The Fruitmarket Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Ingleby Gallery, University of Aberdeen, University of Hertfordshire, University of St Andrews, University of West Scotland, VU Photo (Quebec)