TRACE TALKS: Jem Southam

TRACE Talks is a new monthly series of artist talks hosted in the historic Mayor's Parlour at Devonport Guildhall.

Organised by TRACE Publications, the series brings together artists, photographers, publishers and creative practitioners from across the South West to share insights into their work, creative processes and careers.

A Clamour of Voices

In this talk, Jem Southam will outline how a chorus of voices journeys with us through our encounters with the physical world we share together, and how he has explored their presence in our minds through the bodies of photographic work he has made in the South West of England over the past 50 years.

Drawing on a remarkable career spanning five decades, Southam will reflect on the landscapes, narratives and slow observations that have shaped his practice. Through a selection of key projects, he will explore the relationship between place, memory and photography, offering insight into the processes behind some of the most significant bodies of work in contemporary British landscape photography.

Jem Southam was born in Bristol in 1950. After studying at the London College of Printing, he returned to Bristol to work at Arnolfini Gallery before embarking on a distinguished teaching career at Falmouth School of Art, Exeter College of Art and Design, and later Plymouth, where he spent the final ten years of his academic career. His photographic work is rooted in long-term observation of specific locations, resulting in richly layered visual narratives accompanied by his own writings. Published works include The Red River, The Raft of Carrots, Rockfalls, River Mouths and Ponds, The Pond at Upton Pyne, The River/Winter, Four Winters, The Painter's Pool and Starlings. His most recent publication, Ray's Sheds, takes a different direction, documenting a sculptor's work hidden across seven sheds in West Cornwall.

Part of the TRACE Talks series

📅 Friday 11 December
🕡 Doors 6.30pm | Talk begins 7.00pm
📍 The Mayor's Parlour, Devonport Guildhall

🎟️ £10 General Admission
🎓 £6 Students

A rare opportunity to hear one of Britain's most celebrated photographers discuss a lifetime of work, observation and storytelling through landscape.