Hi! I’m Joanna, a writer and editor specialising in art, literature, history and culture.

I write essays, articles, profiles and interviews, in print and online, for books, magazines and websites including Refinery29, Magnum Photos, The Financial Times, Aperture, The British Journal of Photography and Elephant Magazine.

Here are some recent highlights:

Refinery29

The Artists That Shaped Angelcore – The Internet’s ‘Girliest’ Aesthetic

Devastated and In Love: On Photographing Postpartum Depression With Ying Ang

Redemption, Resilience, Rage: On The Women Serving Life Sentences For Refinery29

Inside China’s Cosmetic Surgery Boom

On The Radiant, Rainbow-Hued World Of Laurence Philomene: Intimate Photos Documenting A Transition

In Pictures: 6 Months With Sheffield’s Sex Workers

My Tinder Boys: A Photographer Flips The Gaze On Her Dating App Matches

The Radiant Beauty of Queer Parenthood

A Tale Of Two Girls: An Interview With Photographer Deepti Asthana About Girlhood In Rural India

Making Sense Of Feelings: 3 Artists On How Creativity Defines Them For Refinery29 x VSCO

The Seductive World Of Jane Austen Superfans

Present Fathers: On Sophie Harris-Taylor’s Photographs Of New Dads

“I Dreamed Of Mama Again Last Night….”: On Marina Hoppmann’s Project Documenting Daughters Who Have Lost Their Mothers

“I am Cora”: Unfolding the Realities Of Childhood Transition

In Between: On Annie Lai’s Photos Of Young Chinese Women Living Away From Home

Elephant Magazine

On Richard Billingham, Annie Ernaux, Addiction & Dad’s For The Elephant x Artsy This Artwork Changed My Life Series

“Kali Is the Goddess of War, But Also Peace. I Find Her Liberating”: A Profile on Sutapa Biswas

Fantasy Island: Adrienne Raquel Strips Strength And Seduction Bare

Ride Or Die: On Kristin Bedford’s Vivid Tribute To The Lowriders Of Los Angeles

Living Structures: On The Endless Hypnotic Ways Humans Inhabit And Shape The World.

Aperture

Impossible Ever After: On Jo Spence, Fairytales and Photography

The Financial Times

Fantasy home: a place that brings the outside in, like Georgia O’Keeffe’s New Mexico adobe house

Magnum

All of Life Is Here At Home: On Scenes Of Domestic Intimacy Unearthed From The Magnum Archive

On Josef Koudelka, States Of Exile, And The 1995 Outsider Epic Ulysses Gaze

In The Studio: An Afternoon At Ghost Ranch With Georgia O’Keeffe

Tracing The Heart-Wrenching Story Behind Bruce Davidson’s Circus

On Carolyn Drake's Work In An All-Girls, Ex-Soviet Ukrainian Orphanage

The British Journal of Photography

On Kalpesh Lathigra's Through-The-Looking-Glass Odyssey Into What Life Could Have Been Had His Family Not Migrated From India To The UK

The Missing Eye: On Parodi & Sorgetti’s New Publication

Stories Of Resilience And Bravery From North Korea In An Interview With Tim Franco

On Vikesh Kapoor’s Visual Love Letter To His Immigrant Mother

The Bird Uncle Of Shunde: An Interview With Artist Robert Zhao Renhui

An Interview With Rafael Pavarotti On Illuminating Black Bodies In Front Of His Lens

Visions Of The Virgin Mary: On Michael Swann’s Noema

Shimmering and Ghostly Greens: On Michele Sibiloni’s Images of Grasshopper Hunting in Uganda

Arles Archives: Holly Roussell Reflects On Curating Pixy Liao’s 2019 Show

Diachronicles: An Interview With Giulia Parlato On The Part Museums Play In Shaping History

Ballad Of Woods And Wounds: On Tomaso Clavarino's New Photobook

Talking Culture and Convention-Breaking With Otto Masters, Marisol Mendez & Irina Shkoda

LensCulture

The Most Fantastic Rocks: On Contemporary Photography’s Fascination With The Geological World

Our Ways Of Being: On Visualising Neurodiversity And Autism

Goddesses And Dragons: On Carlota Guerrero, Ana Mendieta, Myths and Muses

The White Sky: A Review Of Mimi Plumb’s Latest Publication

When Bodies Misbehave: On The legacy Of Jo Spence, Susan Sontag’s ‘Illness As A Metaphor’, Public Healthcare Systems And Photography As Therapy

The Shabbiness Of Beauty: On Peter Hujar, Moyra Davey and Pictures That Leave A Lump In Your Throat

How To Look Natural In Photos: A Book Review Of Bartecka & Rusznica’s New Publication

An Ode To A Brother Loved And Lost: A Book Review Of Vivian Keulard’s To Hans

Keeper of The Hearth: A Review of Odette England’s New Book

Relations: An Interview With Wang Xueping

Dichotomy: A Profile On Kymara Akinpelumi

Neon-Hued Hallucinations: A Conversation On Capitalism And Commodity Culture With Cristiano Volk

A Window At Which To Dream: On The Enduring Legacy Of Ming Smith

The Lotus Seeds Waiting To Sprout: An Interview With Sima Choubdarzadeh

The Planthunter

Work The Soul Must Have: On The Photographs Of Johanna Tagada-Hoffbeck

PUSS PUSS Magazine

What Lies Beneath: A Deep Dive Into The Messy, Modern Rhetoric Of ‘Ghosting’

AnOther

What To Do With A Million Years: An Interview With Juno Calypso

Reconfiguring The Photographic Process With Artist Maya Rochat

The Magic Of Laura Owens’ Radical Paintings

1000 Words

Gendered Landscapes: A Book Review Of Susan Lipper’s Domesticated Land

On Amani’s Willett’s Evocative Photobook The Disappearance Of Joseph Plummer

The Boulevard Of Dreams: On Gregory Halpern’s ZZYZX

Recent In Print

Mercury, Mirrors And Magical Thinking: A Biography of Viviane Sassen – The Cover Story for IMA Magazine’s Winter 2020 Issue (Text In Japanese And English)

Worlds Beyond Worlds: On Gen Z And Photography For IMA Magazine

ODE: An Essay For Hanneke Van Leeuwen On Paper Journal

A Geology Of Feelings: Introductory Text For Elena Cremona’s Artist Book, Postcards From The Past

On Kalpesh Lathigra's Memoire Temporelle For The British Journal Of Photography’s Then & Now Issue

(More) News About Flowers: On Photography And Plants For Unseen Magazine

This Is How I Read…On Vanessa Winship’s She Dances On Jackson For Aperture’s The Photobook Review, Guest Edited By David Campany

I also write and conduct research in an academic capacity, and have won awards including:

2020 winner of the British Association of Decadent Studies Essay Prize for my paper 'The Ecology of Suffering: Thinking With the Elements in Decadent Literature’

2019 winner of the British Comparative Literature Association's Arthur Terry Postgraduate Essay Prize for my essay entitled 'Wit as a Weapon: Male Anxiety and Female Laughter in Feminist Responses to Epic and Ancient Myth'