Bio


Mario Popham (b. 1980, Kamakura, Japan) is a Japanese/British photographic artist, curator and educator based in Manchester, UK. Graduating from Manchester School of Art in 2007, he continues to develop his practice from his adopted home city while he currently undertakes an MA in Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales.

On a planet increasingly altered by human activity, our paradoxical relationship to our the natural environment has formed the basis of an enduring enquiry, expressed through long-term bodies of work. He is currently developing projects in the UK and Italy that explore place in the context of industrial legacy, nature and community and recently developed these ideas through an artist residency with Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool.

As a freelance curator, Mario has led and curated on a number of contemporary photography exhibitions in the north of England, working with organisations such as Open Eye Gallery, Impressions Gallery, HOME Manchester and Castlefield Gallery.





Email: mariopopham@gmail.com
Telephone: +44(0)7940 913666
Instagram: @mariopopham





Selected Exhibitions:

Strange Eden, Climate Lab, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, 2024 

To the Valley Below, IPE 165,  Royal Photographic Society, Bristol, 2024

Strange Eden – Open Call Country-Landscape-Environment, Centre for British Photography, London, 2023 

Seaside Terminus, West Coast Photo, Signal, Barraow-in-Furness, 2021 

Of Flesh and Stone, Granada Galleries, HOME, Manchester, 2018 

Shaped by Stone, ‘On the Stony Path’, GroundWork Gallery,
Norfolk, 2017 

Shaped by Stone, ’Northern Light’ group exhibition, SIA Gallery,
Sheffield, 2016 




Selected Curatorial:


See Change, Look Photo Biennial 2022: Wigan and Leigh, 2023

She Appeared to Vanish,  Waterside & HOME, Manchester, UK, 2021

First Light, Castlefield New Art Spaces, Warrington, UK, 2021

Sweet DebrisWaterside, Manchester, UK,  2018







Commissioned:

Curator/Producer, Open Eye Hub, Wigan and Leigh, 2022-2024
Lead Artist In Residence, Open Eye Gallery, 2023-2025
Return to Nature, Open Eye Gallery, 2021


Awarded:

Belfast Photo Festival – Highly Commended, 2024
Royal Photographic Society, IPE 165 – Selected Series, 2023
FORMAT Festival – GRAIN/FORMAT Portfolio Prize, 2023
Magenta Flash Forward Award – Winner, 2013
Nikon Discovery Awards – Shortlisted, 2007
Observer Hodge Award – Highly Commended, 2006