Sally Waterman is a lens based artist based in London. She creates autobiographical work that explores self-representation, memory, place and familial relationships through literary adaptation and archive source material. Waterman was awarded her practice-based PhD in Media & Photography from University of Plymouth in 2011.
Her work has been exhibited and screened internationally since 1996, including Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, Wales; Pitzhanger Manor House and Gallery, London; Royal West of England Academy, Bristol; CCA, Glasgow; Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York; Turner Contemporary, Margate; Berlin Short Film Festival, Istanbul Experimental Film Festival,Tasmanian International Video Art Festival, International Kansk Video Festival, Russia and the Family Film Project, Porto, Portugal.
Waterman has co-curated artist film programmes, which have also featured her work at ViSiONA festival, Huesca, Spain; Birkbeck cinema, London; Close-Up cinema, London; Richmond American International University, London; and CCA, Glasgow.
Her photographs have featured on book covers for Virago, Random House, Harper Collins and Faber & Faber and her work is held in public collections including The National Art Library at the V&A, London; The School of Art Institute of Chicago and the Yale Center for British Art, New York.
Published academic writing includes ‘Performing Familial Memory in Against’ in Picturing the Family: Media, Narrative, Memory (Bloombury, 2018), ‘Re-imagining the Family Album through Literary Adaptation’ in Global Photographies: Memory–History–Archives (Transcript, 2018) and 'Staging Sermon: Performing Autobiographical Memory Through The Waste Land' in The Handbook of Research on the Relationship Between Autobiographical Memory and Photography (IGI Global, 2023).
She was a visiting fellow at the IGRS, University of London (2011-2012), where she organised the 'Family Ties: Recollection and Representation' conference and was a founder member of the research group, Family Ties Network (2012-2022). During its ten year activity, the group organised sixteen seminar and study day events across the UK in higher education institutions and galleries and curated two exhibitions at The Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck, London and at UCA Farnham.
Waterman is currently employed as a part time archive manager for the photographer, Juergen Teller alongside her own practice and research. Previously she worked as an archivist for the National Portrait Gallery and Pentagram Design. She is an experienced educator, and has worked in academia for sixteen years at various institutions teaching across photography, fashion photography, film, video art and contextual studies at both undergraduate and postgraduate level at Plymouth College of Art, University of Plymouth, Ravensbourne University and University for the Creative Arts.