Ed Dimsdale is a British photographer, writer, and educator whose practice explores the photographic image as an imaginal encounter with the world, considering how images might exceed representation, opening onto experiences of time, memory, and the uncertain relationship between the real and the imagined.
Represented by HackelBury since 1998, Dimsdale has exhibited widley in the UK and internationally, and his work is held in public and private collections. Significant exhibitions include Agulhas at HackelBury and Picturing Eden a five-year touring museum exhibition curated by Deborah Klochko for George Eastman House, Rochester, New York. His work has also extended into intermedial collaborations, notably Model Love, developed with the experimental theatre company Bodies in Flight and presented at Arnolfini, Bristol, and BAC, London. His photographic monograph, Stilled, was published by Stanley/Barker in 2017, and has more recently provided the basis for Stilled / Sounded (2026 -), an ongoing series of exhibition incorporating commissioned sound works inspired by the original publication.
Alongside his photographic practice, Dimsdale writes on photography, contemporary art, and visual culture. His essays and critical writing have appeared in publications including Hotshoe, and he has contributed comissioned text to photographic monographs, including Ian Macdonald's Eton (2007), Lam Pok Yin and Chong Ng's The Unitmely Apparatus of Two Amateur Photographers (2019), and Kim Thue's Lode (2022). He was also a core contributor to Flesh and Text: Devising Theatre with Bodies in Flight (Intellect Books, 2025).
Dimsdale is Professor of Art & Contemporary Visual Culture and Head of the Graduate School at Cambridge School of Visual & Performing Arts, where his work in education and research continues to inform his interdisciplinary approach to artistic practice.