Jo Crowther

Jo Crowther was born in York in 1963 and spent the early years of her life travelling throughout Great Britain, attending 14 schools in as many years. An observant child, the constant travel raised her awareness of her surroundings and, given her father's camera at the age of 14, she was able to record the changes. She began to record her daily life, processing and printing her own work. Although she had no formal training, Jo Crowther started her photographic career in 1983 when she worked for Chris Bailey, the advertising photographer, as First Assistant. She spent the next 12 years as Assistant with location shoots interspersed with independent travel worldwide and, in 1996, she won the Landscape award of the Association of Photographers and the Silver Award of the Royal Photographic Society. Most recently, four of her images have been selected for the year 2000 Association of Photographers Awards. Jo Crowther draws inspiration from the paintings of Turner, Van Gogh and Vermeer. Her work is usually in a small format, both black-and-white and colour, and she likes to `record the reality in a slightly abstract way`. She continues to travel widely, working on location for commissions and for her personal projects. Her images are to be found in private collections and are produced for many exhibitions and environmental projects, including the Association of Photographers' `Landworks` exhibition. One of her subjects was also used by the Royal Mail on its `Millennium` series of postage stamps.