Siân Davey (born 1964) is a British photographer. Her work focuses on her family, community and self, and is informed by her background in psychology.[1]
Davey has published two books,Looking for Alice (2015) andMartha (2018). In 2017 she had a solo exhibition at theNational Portrait Gallery, London,[2] and was awarded theRoyal Photographic Society's Hood Medal forLooking for Alice.[3]
Davey was born in Brighton in 1964. She studied painting atBath Academy of Fine Art (1985) and social policy at theUniversity of Brighton (1990).[4] She was apsychotherapist for 15 years before taking up photography in 2014, which she studied atPlymouth University (MA 2014 and MFA 2016).[1][4][5]
Her photographic practice focuses on her family, community and self, and is informed by her background in psychology.[1][5] Her seriesLooking for Alice is a portrait of her daughter Alice, who hasDown syndrome.[6] One of the photographs from this series was selected for the 2014Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition.[5][7] The series was published byTrolley Books in 2015. In 2016,Looking for Alice was shortlisted for Photobook of the Year in theParis Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards.[8]
Davey's teenage daughter Martha assisted with the creation ofLooking for Alice. This led to Davey's next seriesMartha, focusing on Martha and her teenage friends.[1][9][10] Two photographs from this series were selected for the 2016 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition.[11]
In 2017 Davey exhibited her seriesTogether as a pop-up exhibition at theNational Portrait Gallery, London. The work was made as a commission for theMcCain FoodsWe Are Family series, "which celebrates British families in all their shapes and sizes".[2][12] In creating the work, she travelled across Britain and photographed 31 families in 21 days.[13][14]