Lewis K. Bush

Lewis K. Bush (born 1988) is a British photographer, writer, curator and educator. He aims "to draw attention to forms of invisible power that operate in the world", believing that "power is always problematic" because it is inherently "arbitrary and untransparent".

Bush's The Memory of History (2012), is about Europe's forgetfulness of its unresolved past and that past's re-emergence, as evidenced in the time of the European debt crisis; The Camera Obscured (2012) is about the absurdity of security guards preventing people from photographing buildings; Metropole (2015) is "an architectural critique on the changing face of London"; War Primer 3 (2013) is a reworking of Broomberg and Chanarin's book War Primer 2; and Shadows of the State (2018) is about numbers stations. All are self-published apart from Shadows of the State and the 2018 version of Metropole. The Memory of History He lectures on photojournalism and documentary photography at LCC.

In 2012, for The Memory of History (2012), Bush travelled through ten European Union countries to examine the effects of the European debt crisis, in the context of Europe's turbulent history of crises that are forgotten, only later to resurface. Bush intends to show that process happening again, where unresolved history is reappearing "with the economic pain of the present", using photographs that show "connections between history and the present".

His War Primer 3 (2013 and 2015) is a reworking of Broomberg and Chanarin's War Primer 2 (2011), itself an appropriation of Bertolt Brecht's pacifist book War Primer (1955). Brecht's book was a "critique of the relationship between war and photography", using photographs and poems; Bush's ebook, in critiquing Broomberg and Chanarin's book, is about "inequality, labour and capital." The title recalls a primer, a first textbook for teaching of reading.

His Metropole (2015) zine and corresponding book (2018) is "an architectural critique on the changing face of London", that "seeks to visualise, locate and expose many of these stations". It is about the "line of reasoning [. . . ] that the only way to defend democracy is by having something inherently undemocratic at its core."

From 2011 to 2016 he wrote and edited a blog about photography, Disphotic. He also written about photography for other publications including The British Journal of Photography, The Art Newspaper, Frieze, and publications by Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam and Fotomuseum Antwerp.

Publications Publications by Bush The Memory of History. Self-published, 2012. With essays by Bush. Boxed edition. Self-published, 2012. 56 prints and an essay, "The History of Memory", in 12 separate short chapters. Edition of 27 copies. Updated second edition. Self-published, 2014. Restructured and with updated text, and with a new introduction by Bush. The Camera Obscured. Self-published, 2012. With texts by Bush. War Primer 3. Ebook. Self-published, 2013. Facsimile edition. Self-published, 2018. Shadows of the State. Berlin: Brave, 2018. . Metropole. Overlapse, 2018. . Depravity's Rainbow. Disphotic Editions, 2023. .

Smaller publications by Bush Metropole. Self-published, 2015. A zine. Second printing. Self-published, 2015. A Model Continent. Self-published, 2016. A postcard book. Stryker. Self-published, 2019. A zine. Peckham Gothic. Self-published, 2019. A zine. Eleven Privatised Public Assets. Self-published, 2019. A zine. Latent Labour. Self-published, 2020. A zine. Spyhole. Self-published, 2020. A zine. Welcome to the Hotel Santa Maria. Self-published, 2020. A zine. Sunlight. Self-published, 2021. A zine. Regression Towards the Mean. Self-published, 2021. A zine. City of Dust. Self-published, 2021. A zine. Borderlands. Self-published, 2021. A zine. Best Copy Available. Self-published, 2021. A zine. Antique Land. Self-published, 2021. A zine. A Model Continent. Self-published, 2021. A zine. A Grey Area. Self-published, 2021. A zine.

Publication with contribution by Bush Flash Forward 2017: Emerging Photographers from Canada, the United Kingdom & the United States. Toronto: Magenta Foundation, 2017. . With a foreword by Dan Gaba.

Exhibitions Solo exhibitions The Memory of History, 12 Star Gallery, Europe House, London, 2014. Metropole, Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design, London Metropolitan University, London, 2015–2016. City of Dust, Westminster Reference Library, London, 2016. Trading Zones, The Old Police Station, Saint Helier, Jersey, September 2018. Work resulting from the Archisle photographer in residence at the Société Jersiaise on the Channel Island of Jersey, exploring different aspects of offshore finance on the island. Counter-Power, Galerie Art & Essai – Université Rennes 2, Rennes, France, November - December 2023. Early career retrospective of three of Bush’s projects. An Infinitely Dark Legacy, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany, November - April 2025. Touring exhibition based on Bush's project Depravity's Rainbow. An Infinitely Dark Legacy, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz, Germany, January 2026. Touring exhibition based on Bush's project Depravity's Rainbow.

Exhibitions curated by Bush Media & Myth, Format Festival, Derby, UK, 2015. Magna Errata, The Alternative Magna Carta Festival, Clerkenwell, London, 2015. Very Now, London College of Communication, London, 2016. Images of Power, Seen Fifteen Gallery, Peckham, London, 2016. Curated by Bush and Mark Duffy. Incomplete Images, Light Eye Mind, London, 2017. Curated by Bush and Monica Alcazar-Duarte. Work by Tomás Peña, Elena Kollatou and Leonidas Toumpanos, Aram Karim, Damon Amb, and Rahman Hassani. It's Gonna be Great, Copeland Gallery, Peckham, London, 2017. Curated by Bush and Duffy.

Awards 2017: 1 of 92 winners, Magenta Foundation Flash Forward Award, Toronto, Canada 2018: International Photographer in Residence, Archisle Project, Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive, Jersey 2019: Photographer in Residence, Gobelins / BMW residency.