Decadenza
Distanza
Emergence
How Long is Now?
Incremento
Ingresso
Palac
Retrogression
Reclamation
Others
Biography
English photographer Gina Soden is a true adventurer. Her photographs reflect a real talent that she has never ceased to exploit. Always on the lookout for a unique shot, she chooses exceptional places left abandoned and bearing the imprint of time. Although photography is closely associated with urbex, Gina Soden has developed a very personal style of photographing abandoned places, always in search of a perfection tarnished by time.
An explorer photographer, always on the move
Fascinated by ruins, she explores unusual places all over Europe. Abandoned hospitals, asylums, schools, mines, factories and churches. Gina Soden relentlessly tracks down these singular places where enchantment takes precedence over decrepitude. For the artist, this quest even represents a large part of her work as a photographer. She spends hours consulting and translating local newspapers and scouring Google Earth to find these forgotten places.
Very often, access to these sites is made difficult by the various prohibitions and surveillance measures in place, and the dilapidated state of the sites makes it difficult and sometimes dangerous to take photographs. The artist’s courage and imagination are put to the test every time she takes a photograph. The artist’s photography is far removed from the documentary style, offering instead photography in which space and time collide, producing a result that is both beautiful and poignant.
Between urbex photography and visual poetry
Gina Soden’s photographic work is a true experiment, but also a poetic experience. No staging, no criticism: the artist restores each place to its former beauty and brings them to life despite their derelict state. Gina Soden goes further than urbex photography: she refines places by giving each shot a unique emotion.
Gina Soden’s photography is characterised by a certain urgency: each place is visited only once, without prior location scouting and, when circumstances dictate, quickly. The photographer is in search of the experience, she doesn’t give her feelings time to disappear, depicting them with a mixture of violence and gentleness. Her work is often compared to that of the Romantic poets, which combined beauty and serenity with chaos and violent destructuring.
The artist’s lyrical artistic approach and painterly treatment of the smallest detail awaken the magic that inhabits these places. With their carefully considered compositions, her contemporary photographs give them a triumphant allure. The colours are vibrant, the light at times dazzling, almost divine, and the chaos that haunts the place seems at peace.
A photographer exhibited all over the world
Since 2010, Gina Soden has exhibited her photography mainly in London, notably at the Eleven Gallery and the Fine Art Society. She also regularly takes part in fairs in London (The Other Art Fair, Photo Art Fair) and New York (Pulse New York Art Fair). Her work has also been exhibited in Hong Kong and Moscow. In 2018, Gina Soden received the Rise Art award for ‘British Artist of the Year’. Her work Klinik was selected by the jury from over 16,000 works of contemporary art.
View of Gina Soden’s exhibitions at La Gacilly Photo Festival 2025, Brittany, France, FR, 2025
CV
Education
- 2005/2007 – Thames Valley University, specialization in photography and multimedia, London
Solo exhibitions
- 2026 – Solo show, Open, Palazzo Buontalenti, Sala del Demanio (Florence, Italy)
- 2024 – Duo show with Tom Cartmill, Winter Open Studio (Reading, Berkshire, UK)
- 2023 – Solo show Reclamation, Charlie Smith London, Soho (London, UK)
- 2023 – Duo show Uncovered with Nicholas Gentilli, Kent House, Knightsbridge (London, UK)
- 2020 – How Long is Now, solo show, Artyque Agency (Berlin, Germany)
- 2015 – Falls The Shadow, Duo show with Natasha Kissell, Eleven Gallery (London, UK)
- 2014 – Emergence, solo show, Eyelike Gallery (Beaconsfield, UK)
- 2014 – Decadenza, solo show, Rise Art (London, UK)
- 2012 – Retrogression, Solo Pop Up Show, Groucho Club (London, UK)
Group exhibitions
- 2025 – 22e Festival photo de La Gacilly, group show, La Gacilly (Morbihan, France)
- 2024 – 171st Annual Open Exhibition, group show, Royal West of England Academy (Bristol, UK)
- 2024 – The Other Art Fair, group show, ZeroSpace (Brooklyn, USA)
- 2024 – The Other Art Fair, group show (Los Angeles, USA)
- 2024 – The Other Art Fair, group show (London, UK)
- 2023 – In Bloom, group show curated by Victoria Law Projects, Chelsea (London, UK)
- 2022 – Summer Exhibition, group show, Royal Academy (London, UK)
- 2022 – The Hari Hotel, group show, Belgravia (London, UK)
- 2022 – The Other Art Fair, group show (Los Angeles, USA)
- 2021 – The Top 100, group show, The Auction Collective (London, UK)
- 2019 – The Other Art Fair, group show (London, UK)
- 2019 – Archaeologies, group show, Charlie Smith Gallery (London, UK)
- 2018 – Not 30%, group show, The Other Art Fair (London, UK)
- 2018 – Cosmoscow International Contemporary Art Fair, group show (Moscow, Russia)
- 2018 – Art Car Boot Fair, group show (London, UK)
- 2017 – The Other Art Fair, group show (London, UK)
- 2017 – London Contemporary Art Prize 2017, group show (London, UK)
- 2016 – Fotofever, group show with Artistics Gallery (Paris, France)
- 2016 – The Other Art Fair, group show (London, UK)
- 2015 – The Other Art Fair, group show (London, UK)
- 2015 – Christmas Salon, group show, Eleven Gallery (London, UK)
- 2015 – Filling The Void, group show, K35 Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
- 2014 – Christmas Salon, group show, Eleven Gallery (London, UK)
- 2014 – Group Show, Century Club (London, UK)
- 2014 – UK Young Artists Festival, group show (Leicester, UK)
- 2014 – The Other Art Fair, group show (London, UK)
- 2013 – Wells Art Contemporary Exhibition, group show (Wells, UK)
- 2013 – The Other Art Fair, group show (London, UK)
- 2013 – Barbican Artworks Open 2013, group show (London, UK)
- 2013 – Natural Selection, group show, The Fine Art Society Contemporary (London, UK)
- 2013 – Pulse New York Art Fair, group show (New York, USA)
- 2013 – Photo Art Fair, group show (London, UK)
- 2013 – Art13 London, group show, The Fine Art Society Contemporary (London, UK)
- 2013 – London Art Fair, group show, The Fine Art Society Contemporary (London, UK)
- 2012 – From 1820 to Now, group show, The Fine Art Society and Bourne Fine Arts, The Space (Hong Kong, China)
- 2012 – Things I Love by Peter Blake, group show, The Fine Art Society (London, UK)
- 2011 – Signal 8 Exhibition, group show, The Cat Street Gallery (Hong Kong, China)
- 2010 – Art Smile Charity Exhibition, group show, The Cat Street Gallery (Hong Kong, China)
Awards & Residencies
- 2018 – Artist of the Year, The Rise Art UK Prize
- 2017 – Finalist for The Art of Building Competition 2017 with Peacock
- 2016 – Winner of Secret Art Prize 2016
- 2014 – Awarded 1st Prize Naylor Award for Finest Photograph, National Open Art
- 2013 – Awarded Emerging Artist of the Year, National Open Art
- 2013 – Winner of Weston Parks Fine Art Open Competition
- 2013 – Awarded Best in Show, Photo Art Fair
- 2011 – Winner of Driven Creativity Photography Competition
Articles
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