'Maybe the target nowadays is not to discover what we are, but to refuse what we are.' Michel Foucault
A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Jo Longhurst was awarded the National Media Museum Photography Award for her works with the British show Whippet - a dog bred to an ideal standard. The project focuses particularly on the evolution of the visual image of the Whippet, and the construction of human identity through the shaping of the figure of the dog.
For her photography award Longhurst turned her attention to the subject of elite Chinese Gymnasts to create the series Perfect. Her work interrogates the process of training, documenting the emotional experience of the athletes and their coaches in the quest for perfection. The artist notes:
I also hope that this new body of work will exceed its specific subject matter: I intend this to be an exploration of physicality, liberation, pleasure, and achievement; failure, exhaustion, and despair: a further probing of lens-based media and the human condition.
Longhurst has shown at the Pavilion in Leeds, at the European Academy for the Arts, London, and recently at the Kunsthalle zu Kiel among others. Her work can also be found in the BMI collection, the Hiscox Art collection, the UBS collection, and the Museum Folkwang.