The work of British born South African photographer Alastair Whitton is preoccupied with the mechanisms of memory and the recording of time and place. Through the lens he explores what he refers to as ‘the architecture of time and the poetics and politics of place’ attempting to illuminate the ‘space between moments’. His photographs celebrate the seemingly commonplace and are in effect monuments to the dislocated or overlooked.
He received his NDip.FA (with distinction) from the Natal Technikon School of Fine Art in Durban, South Africa where he was awarded the coveted Emma Smith Scholarship enabling him to further his studies at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. Currently based in Cape Town, his work has taken him to various cities across the globe including New York, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paris, Amsterdam, Basel, Florence and Venice amongst others.
To date he has presented seven solo exhibitions and his photographs have been featured in curated group exhibitions at notable museums and institutions. Highlights have included: Fotomuseum, Antwerp; Center for Book Arts, New York; Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon; Pratt Institute, New York; Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice; Museo Carlo Bilotti, Rome; Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town; IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town and the 8th African Photography Biennale, Bamako.
He has participated in various international art fairs and photo festivals including amongst others Photo London (2020-22); Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2013-2022); AKAA - Also Known as Africa, Paris (2017-2019); Host: Editions, Cape Town (2015); FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg (2009-2014); Head On Photo Festival, Sydney (2013); Editions: Artists’ Books, New York (2009 & 2013) and Out of Africa Festival, Munich (1997).
Whitton’s work is represented in the collections of the Aperture Foundation Library, New York; Luciano Benetton Collection, Venice; National Museum of Mali, Bamako; Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts, Johannesburg; University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria; Ellerman House Collection, Cape Town; Durban Institute of Technology and the Durban Art Museum.