About
Lee Grant (b. 1973 Australia) is a Korean-Australian photographer and researcher with a background in social anthropology based on the South Coast of NSW. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Anthropology) and a Master of Philosophy (Visual Arts) from the Australian National University.
Lee works on commissions and long-term independent and collaborative projects dealing with themes of community, identity and belonging and how landscape (both natural and inhabited) relates to these concepts. As a multi-disciplinary documentarian her practice combines photography, video, sound and text to approach these subjects in projects that are often underpinned with research of institutional and found archives.
Lee has exhibited at the Australian Centre for Photography (Sydney), Monash Gallery of Art (Melbourne) and the National Portrait Gallery (Canberra) amongst others and has won several photography awards including the prestigious William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize (2010) and the National Photographic Portrait Prize (2018).
Project outcomes include publications in the form of photobooks and other printed materials and exhibitions. In late 2012 Lee published her first book Belco Pride followed by The Five Happinesses in 2015. Lee self publishes one-off and limited edition artist books under her imprint, Jungle Books.
Her photographs are included in the collections of the Australian War Memorial, the State Library of NSW, Parliament House Canberra, the National Library of Australia, Monash Gallery of Art, Canberra Museum and Art Gallery as well as numerous private collections. Lee continues to work on commissioned and personal projects in Australia and Asia, with a special interest in North and South Korea and Japan. More recently, Lee has been working on a number of short documentary film projects.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021 Seeing Canberra, Canberra Museum and Art Gallery, Canberra
2021 Bowness Photography Prize Celebrates 15 years, Wangaratta Art Gallery, Victoria.
2020 The Ties That Bind: From there to here, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne
2019 Promised the Moon, ANU School of Art, Canberra
2019 National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
2018 National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
2017 Self-ID, M16 Gallery, Canberra
2016 Preset Memory, M16 Gallery, Canberra
2015 All that Fall, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
2015 Urban Suburban, CMAG, Canberra.
2014 Insights, The Prinstspace, London, UK.
2013 Lens Love, CMAG, Canberra
2013 Hopeless Romantics, ANU SoA Foyer Gallery, Canberra
2013 CanberraVille, Photoville, Brooklyn New York, USA
2013 Olive Cotton Award. Tweed Heads Art Gallery.
2013 Oculi: Home. Reportage, Sydney.
2013 Australian Photography - a Projections curated by Jody Haines. Chobi Mela Photography Festival, Bangladesh
2013 Asian Women’s Photography Showcase – curated by Yumi Goto. Chaing Mai Documentary Arts Festival, Thailand
2012 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, Gold Coast Art Gallery
2012 10×100, Fremantle Prison Gallery, Fotofreo, Fremantle
2012 Inspire, Newington College Gallery, Sydney
2012 Body, Edmund Pearce Gallery, Melbourne
2011 Unearthly Garden, The Colour Factory, Melbourne
2011 Global Backyard, Latrobe Regional Art Gallery.
2011 Australian Pavilion, Pingyao International Photography Festival, China
2011 National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
2011 Olive Cotton Award. Tweed Heads Art Gallery.
2011 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award. Gold Coast Art Gallery
2011 National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
2010 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize. Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne
2010 Hijacked 2: Australia and Germany, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
2010 Head On. Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
2010 National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
Solo Exhibitions
2020 Untold Eurobodalla. The Bas, Moruya.
2013 Belco Pride. Edmund Pearce Gallery, Melbourne
2011 Belco Pride. Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney.
2010 Belco Pride. ANU SoA Gallery, Canberra
Commissions
2020 The Ties That Bind: From there to here, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne
2018 - 2019 Mnemosyne: The Australian War Memorial, Canberra
2018 - Artist Residency, DMZ Project, South Korea
2012 - 2017 Artist Residency with Molonglo Group, Canberra
2015 Commissioned artist for ANZAC Centenary exhibition All that fall at the NPG, Canberra
2013 Commissioned by BTV/WildBear to work on documentary co-production in Beijing, China
2013 Commissioned by FilmCamp as on-set photographer for the Australian film, Galore
Grants/Awards
2020 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize – Finalist
2019 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize – Finalist
2019 National Photographic Portrait Prize - Finalist
2018 National Photographic Portrait Prize - Finalist and Overall Winner
2018 ArtsACT Grant (Transmedia Workshop, Melbourne)
2017 ArtsACT Grant (Self ID)
2014 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize – Finalist
2013 Olive Cotton Award - Finalist
2013 Asian Women’s Photography Showcase (AWPS) – Winner.
2012 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award - Finalist
2012 ArtsACT Grant (Belco Pride Publication)
2011 Olive Cotton Award - Finalist
2011 Australian Council for the Arts (Artstart Grant)
2011 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award - Finalist
2011 National Photographic Portrait Prize - Finalist
2010 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize - Finalist and Overall Winner
2010 ArtsACT Grant (Incite, FotoFreo)
2010 National Photographic Portrait Prize - Finalist
2010 Selected for Hijacked Volume 2 – Australia and Germany
2009 Critical Mass 09 - Finalist
2009 Sony/ACMP Projections 09. Finalist, Category Winner (Art) and Overall Winner
Client List
Indigo Pictures, Monocle, The New Yorker, Le Monde Magazine, VICE, Frankie, Smith Journal, WildBear Productions, Beijing TV, The Australian War Memorial, The National Portrait Gallery, Monash Gallery of Art, St Vincent de Paul, Fujifilm Australia, Molonglo Group
Curatorial Projects
2013 Hopeless Romantics, ANU SoA Foyer Gallery, Canberra
2013 _On this site Bateman’s Bay (ACT). The Photography Room/Kaori Gallery, Canberra
2011-13 Timemachine Magazine (co-founder and editor)
2009-14 Light Journeys: Australian Women Working in Photography (founder and co-curator)
Collections
Australian Parliament House Collection
State Library of NSW
Australian War Memorial
Monash Gallery of Art
Molonglo Group
National Library of Australia
Canberra Museum and Art Gallery
Various Private Collections