Rhiannon Adam is a queer Irish photographic artist, working between London, New York, and South Africa. She was educated at Central Saint Martins and at the University of Cambridge, and is the author of three books, including Big Fence / Pitcairn Island, and Polaroid: The Missing Manual.
Her research-led long-term projects feature complex narratives relating to social injustice, outsider communities and abuse of power through the oft-close relationships between utopia and dystopia, fact and fiction.
Her documentary practice is rooted in the study of cause and effect turning her lens to the micro in order to reflect on the urgent macro issues of our time.
While rooted in photographic image-making, these explorations harness the power of archive material, video, audio, and interrogate the inherent nature of the photographic medium itself.
In 2021, Adam was chosen as one of the eight crew members (all creatives) on the first civilian lunar orbital mission: dearMoon. However, in June 2024, the project's funder (Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa) abruptly cancelled the mission.
Adam is now working on a chapter-based self-reflexive project, Rhi-Entry, which deals with the fallout, and a body of work reflecting on the complex racial dynamics of post-Apartheid South Africa.
