Tudor Rhys Etchells

(b.1994 Cardiff, Wales)

is a documentary 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. To him, the photograph and the law are both frameworks for negotiating evidence, belief and knowledge. Documentary photography often fails, so satirising it as a system of constructing truth, the norm of the imagined nation state is questioned. 

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.

tudoretchells[@]gmail[dot]com

@tudir

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