Lewis attended the Polytechnic of Central London (now University of Westminster) to study film and photography in the mid 1980s and later worked for the community based Blackfriars Photography Project in South East London.
Recent exhibitions and screenings include: Once Removed, Venice Biennal (2011); Field Work, ArtSway Gallery (2010); Photo-ID, Norwich Forum (2009); AfterShock, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (2007). Lewis's work has appeared in a number of publications around themes of race, identity and representation. His work Untitled (Royal Anthropological Institute, London),1995, entered the Arts Council Collection in 2001. He has exhibited widely in both solo and group shows including the Photographer's Gallery, London; MOMA, Oxford; Recontres d'Arles, France.
Lewis continues working as a commercial photographer and gives talks and workshops in galleries and schools as well as lecturing in further and higher education institutions.
A continual thread through my self-initiated projects are themes around anthropology and photography. The exhibition (a joint commission by Autograph and The Photographer’s Gallery, London) examine museum sites and spaces in which ethnographic photographs are archived and classified. These images seek to contest the space in which they are housed by challenging the institutional authority by animating the ‘subject’ of the archives.
Andre S. Belcher - Contributor