In 1997 he was the first recipient of the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize and the following year BBC2 broadcast his film Fishtank, (47mins) produced by Artangel and filmmaker Adam Curtis. He exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2001 and was nominated for the Turner Prize, also 2001.
He has made work about his immediate family, about animals in zoos around the world and about the British landscape. Recently he has written and directed his first feature film for cinema called ‘Ray & Liz’, shot on location in the Midlands where he grew up.
His work is held in many collections including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum, New York, V & A and Tate Galleries, London.
Filmography
• Fishtank (1998) – documentary video, 47 minutes, commissioned by Artangel and Adam Curtis for BBC television and shown on BBC Two in December 1998[1][17]
• Liz Smoking (1998) – short documentary video
• Tony Smoking Backwards (1998) – short documentary video
• Ray in Bed (1999) – short documentary video
• Playstation (1999) – short documentary video
• Ray (2016), written and directed by Billingham – 30 minutes, part 1 of 3-part feature film
