Tudor Rhys Etchells

(b.1994 Cardiff, Wales)

is a documentary visual artist who uses the fiction of the photograph to challenge legally created realities.

Working within such a bureaucracy in his previous role as a human rights lawyer inspires his closeness to the document and brutally mundane. For him, the photographic medium, with its own cumbersome structures of viewing and representing, appears the best match for understanding processes that construct the imagined norms of our society. Embracing photography’s performative element, he deconstructs our conceptions of visual knowledge.

He graduated with a LLB in English and Spanish Law from IE University, Spain, and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2016.

He graduated from MA Documentary Photography at The University of South Wales, home to The European Centre for Documentary Research.

He is an associate artist and curator at BayArt, Cardiff.

He lectures at the University of South Wales and University of Gloucester.

Grants/Awards:

2025 - British Journal of Photography - Ones to Watch

2025 - FUTURES Artist - nominated by PhotoIreland

2024 - BOP Bristol Book Dummy Showcase

2024 - Art Council Wales Create Funding

2023 - BayArt Writing Room Residency

2023 - Source Photography Journal  - Graduate Showcase

2022 - Reginald Salsbury Award

2022 - PEP New Talent 2022

2017 - Peter Duffy Scholarship at the European Court of Human Rights

2010 - United World College – Great Britain Committee Scholarship

Solo Exhibitions:

2024 - Available Project Guaranteed - BayArt, Cardiff - Ffoto Cymru Photography Festival

ft. Written response by Sadia Pineda Hameed - conditioned space

2021 - Seeking the Mundane - CURAD, Cardiff

Group Exhibitions

2025 - ExtraLegal - BayArt, Cardiff [Curation only]

2025 - EastMeetsWest - Format Festival, Derby

2024 - Here, Now - the wholefood studio - BayArt, Cardiff

2023 - LFAnt - BayArt, Cardiff

2023 - Deslocamentos - Bienal ‘23 Fotografia de Porto - P.Artes, Porto

2022 - PEP New Talent 2022 - 254Forest, Brussels

2018 - Are You Lost Yet? - The Abacus, Cardiff