Alastair Whitton is a South African artist whose practice engages photography, artist books, and constructed image-based works. His work explores structure, material, and the ways in which images are assembled, sequenced, and reconfigured.

Working between observation and construction, his practice often moves from photographic encounter to processes of editing, reconstruction, and physical making. Modular thinking, spatial awareness, and an interest in the provisional nature of built environments underpin his approach.

Whitton graduated with distinction from the Durban University of Technology in 1994 and was awarded the Emma Smith International Scholarship to study at the Glasgow School of Art in 1995. In 2009, he represented South Africa at the Bamako Encounters African Photography Biennale in Mali, and in 2025 received an Ampersand Foundation Fellowship.

His work has been presented internationally at Photo London and AKAA, Paris, and exhibited at institutions including the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice; Museo Carlo Bilotti, Rome; Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon; Foto Museum, Antwerp; and the Center for Book Arts, New York. In South Africa, his work has been shown at the Norval Foundation, Zeitz MOCAA, and the IZIKO South African National Gallery.

Whitton’s work is held in public and research collections including the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Thomas J. Watson Library at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the International Center of Photography (ICP) Library, New York; the Aperture Foundation Library, New York; the Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts at the Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg and the National Museum of Mali, Bamako.

For a full exhibition history and publications, please refer to the curriculum vitae.