Biography
Photographer Roy Mehta has been an artist and educator for over 30 years.
Much of his work focuses on diversity and belonging. Through documenting everyday life, his work builds connections between different identities. Through projects such as Distant Relations and Revival, his work often examines how cultures and identities interweave.
In the book, Different: A Historical Context, 2001, Stuart Hall describes Mehta’s project Distant Relations: “It refuses the elaborate gesture, the grand narrative, the labelling and the categorisation, the strong statement, the easy answers. Especially, it refuses the 'othering' of the Asian experience. Instead, it takes the unobtrusive, more personal path by focusing on small and intimate things.”
His work is in the permanent collections of Autograph, Historic England, The Library of Birmingham, The Harris Museum and Art Gallery and IKS Collection, Germany.
Mehta’s work has been exhibited internationally including The Cape Town festival of Photography, Darmstadt Art Gallery, Germany, Tate Exchange Liverpool, Plovdiv International Photography Festival in Bulgaria, Focal Point Gallery UK and most recently The Migration Museum in London.
He is presently working with The Kiln Theatre in London on a project to interpret the heritage of people who have lived near Kilburn High Road in London. This is for a still’s projects and also a film, due to be launched in 2026. He is also a judge on The Documentary Photography Awards (DPA), organised by The Royal Photographic Society.
He is currently senior lecturer and researcher in documentary photography and photojournalism, at London College of Communication, UAL.
Over his career he has been regularly commissioned to produce work for a range of design, editorial and advertising clients including The Independent, Faber & Faber, Penguin, Macmillan, Random House, BBC, NS&I, The Royal College of Nursing, The British Heart Foundation and many more.
Selected Recent Awards and Grants
2022 National Lottery Heritage Fund
2020 Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant
2020 Fix Photo Award Winner
2019 London Borough of Culture fund award
Selected Exhibitions
2024 Heart of The Nation, Group Exhibition, The Migration Museum, London
2023 Heart of The Nation, Group Exhibition, Leicester Museum and Art Gallery
2023 Revival, London 1989-1993, PhotoNorth Festival, Leeds
2022 Revival, London 1989-1993, Solo Exhibition, Brent Museums & Archives, Brent 2020 London Borough of Culture
2022 Women of the Match: Portraits of Brent’s Female Football Stars, Brent Civic Centre, London
2022 Revival, London 1989-1993, Facing Britain: A Survey of Post-War British Photography, Group exhibition, Museum for Photography, Krakow, Poland
2021 Revival, London 1989-1993, Facing Britain: A Survey of Post-War British Photography, Group exhibition, Darmstadt Art Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany
2020 Sixteen, Group exhibition, RK Burt Gallery, London
2020 Sixteen, Group exhibition, London: Southbank Public Realm
2019 Sixteen, Group exhibition, Tate Liverpool
2019 Sixteen, Group exhibition, Derby Photography Festival
2016 Uncertain States Annual, Cass Gallery, London
2015 Coaxial, Group show London, Photomonth
2014 Brighton Photofestival
2013 Uncertain States Annual, Cass Gallery, London
2012 Uncertain States Annual, Cass Gallery, London
2012 The World in London Group Show, Photographers Gallery (on location)
2011 Uncertain States Group show, East Gallery, London
2010 Between Two Truths, Group Show, Foremans Smokehouse Gallery, London
2004 Coastline, Romfeia Gallery, Bulgaria (Plovdiv International Photography Festival)
2003 Coastline, Focal Point Gallery, Southend, Solo exhibition
2003 Coastline, Tom Blau Gallery, London, Solo exhibition
2000 Just Another Day, Millennium Commission Group exhibition, Ffotogallery, Cardiff
1999 Coastline, Cape Town Festival of Photography, South Africa, Solo exhibition
1998 Distant Relations, British Photography Today, Rencontres d’Arles
1998 Coastline, Shine, Group exhibition, National Museum of Film and Photography, Bradford
1998 Moving Stories, Group exhibition, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston
1997 Distant Relations, Keynes Gallery, University of Kent, Canterbury
1997 Distant Relations, Willesden Green Gallery, London 1996 Impressions Gallery, York
1996 John Kobal, Group exhibition, National Portrait Gallery
1996 Distant Relations, Cambridge Darkroom Gallery (book and touring show ‘Distant Relations’), Cambridge
1995 Derby Photography Festival, Derby
1994 Luton Museum and Art Gallery, Luton
1993 Photofusion Photography Gallery, Solo exhibition, London
1991 Watershed Media Centre, Bristol