Anne-Katrin Purkiss
Anne-Katrin Purkiss (born in Chemnitz, Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany, 1959) is a German photographer. She moved to Britain in 1984, after graduating from University of Leipzig in 1983. Her father Joachim Seyffarth (1928–2014) was a German curator of monuments and photographer.
Anne-Katrin Purkiss
- Nationality
- Germany
- Occupation
- photographer · journalist
- Languages
- German
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Documentary summary
Anne-Katrin Purkiss (born in Chemnitz, Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany, 1959) is a German photographer. She moved to Britain in 1984, after graduating from University of Leipzig in 1983. Her father Joachim Seyffarth (1928–2014) was a German curator of monuments and photographer.
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wikidata · Q4768063 · wikipedia · Anne-Katrin Purkiss
In this article
Portraits of Purkiss
Portraits of Purkiss
The National Portrait Gallery collection has a 1994 print of Purkiss by Alan Symes.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1959
Anne-Katrin Purkiss was born on 1 January 1959.
Publications
Publications
Local Faces (2001) Orleans House Gallery (with introductions by Bamber Gascoigne and Terence Pepper) Sculptors 1986-2007 (2007) Orleans House Gallery (with an introduction by Victoria Worsley, Henry Moore Institute) Images of the GDR akg-images (Berlin–London–Paris) (2009) Scientists 1985-2010 (2010) Artists at Home and at Work (2015) The Gainsborough's House Society Faces of the South Downs - Portraits of a Landscape (2015) Miriquidi Books Sculptors 1986-2016 (2017) Miriquidi Books; foreword by Peter Murray (Yorkshire Sculpture Park) and Adrian Glew, archivist at Tate Gallery Anthony Eyton - Studio pictures (2017) Miriquidi Books Creative Connections – Portraits of Women Scientists and Artists (2019), Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge Sculptors at Work (2021) F.E.McWilliam Gallery & Studio Gainsborough’s House – Reviving an Artist’s Birthplace (2023) Gainsborough’s House Society Faces of the South Downs - Portraits in a Landscape (2025) Miriquidi Books
Illustrations to publications
Illustrations to publications
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (current edition) • Poland – European Tiger, Euromoney Books 1993 • Finland – A Coming of Age, Euromoney Books, 1996 • The lost Palace of Whitehall, RIBA, 1998 • Postman's Park: G. F. Watts's Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice Watts Gallery, 2008 • Watts Chapel: A Guide to the Symbols of Mary Watts's Arts and Crafts Masterpiece, Philip Wilson Publishers, 2010, • An Artists’ Village, Philip Wilson Publishers, 2011, • Paolo Cavinato – Constellation, Royal British Society of Sculptors, 2011 • SKULPTUR, Hatje Cantz, 2015 • Secrets of the High Woods, South Downs National Park Authority, 2016 • Sculpture Shock - Site-specific interventions, Black Dog Publishing, 2016 • J.M.W. Turner’s House - The conservation of Sandycombe Lodge in Twickenham, 2016/17, Turner’s House Trust, 2017 • John Hitchens - Aspects of Landscape, Sansom & Company, Bristol 2020 • Diana Armfield: A Lyrical Eye, Paul Holberton Publishing 2021 • CONVERGENCE – Paintings by John Hitchens, Felix & Spear, London, 2022 • John Lyons Carnivalesque (2024), The Whitworth, • John Hitchens - Elements of Landscape, Sansom & Company, Bristol 2025
Works in public collections
Works in public collections
Her Sculptors project documented sculptors in their working environment and includes portraits of Dame Elisabeth Frink, Kenneth Armitage, Andy Goldsworthy, Sir Anthony Caro and Lynn Chadwick. Photographs from her collection of her portraits of British scientists was shown in exhibitions at the Royal Society and the National Portrait Gallery, London including portraits of Sir Alec Jeffreys, Lord Darzi, Sir Martin Evans, Sir Tim Hunt and Dame Louise Johnson. She compiled photographic records of the restoration of the Watts Gallery in Compton, Surrey, between 2008 and 2011, J.M.W. Turner’s House Sandycombe Lodge in Twickenham, London, from 2016 to 2017 and Gainsborough's House in Sudbury, Suffolk, from 2014 to 2022. Her early work includes a large number of photographs of her childhood and youth in the GDR (East Germany) which is catalogued in the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (German National Library). She works primarily in black-and-white, using available light and Hasselblad.
There are over 100 photographic portraits by Purkiss in the National Portrait Gallery collection including portraits of Denis Thatcher, Enoch Powell, Simon Rattle and Georg Solti. Her work is also held in the collections of the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal Society, London, the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, the New Hall Art Collection, University of Cambridge, the Ingram Collection, in the archive of TATE, the National Art Library, the library of Yale Centre for British Art, Pallant House Gallery, Walsall Art Gallery and the Royal College of Art.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Anne-Katrin Purkiss”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q4768063: Anne-Katrin Purkiss
General reference · Wikidata
Awards
• Wellcome Image Award 2009 • German Photobook Award 2024
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Sculptors 1986-2007 Orleans House Gallery
- 2.Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek.
- 3.Anne-Katrin Purkiss - National Portrait Gallery.
- 4.Anne-Katrin Purkiss | Artist | Royal Academy of Arts.
- 5.Royal Society Picture Library | Picture Library.
- 6.The Discovery Service.
- 7.New Hall Art Collection, University of Cambridge https://art.newhall.cam.ac.uk/artist/anne-katrin-purkiss/
- 8.The Ingram Collection.
- 9.Tate Archive and Public Records Catalogue.
- 10.Search results for Victoria and Albert Museum.
- 11.Anne Purkiss - YCBA Collections Search Search Results.
- 12.FACES OF THE SOUTH DOWNS - Portraits in a Landscape by Anne-Katrin Purkiss.
- 13.https://wellcome.org/what-we-do/our-work/2009-wellcome-image-awards#gid=e8ca&pid=3
- 14.https://wellcome.org/what-we-do/our-work/2009-wellcome-image-awards
- 15.https://deutscherfotobuchpreis.de/portfolio/anne-purkiss/
- 16.Anne-Katrin Purkiss - National Portrait Gallery.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Born at
1- ChemnitzPlace
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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