Dr Kerry Purcell

Kerry is interested to hear from potential PhD applicants in the following fields:

Design & Photography:

Graphic Design History; Swiss Design History; Post-War American graphic design; British Post-War Photography; 20^th Century Typography; Modernism and Design; Politics and graphic design; British Post-war graphic design.

Philosophy & Visual Cultural Theory:

Continental Philosophy; Visual Cultural Theory; Class and Visual Culture; the philosophy of history; historiography; Louis Althusser; Alain Badiou; the politics of May 1968; radical historiography.

-----------

Completed Doctoral Supervision:

Syed Gowhar Andrabi, Promoting Religious Tolerance through the Design of a Pictogram Communication System for Digital Peacemakers on Social Networking Sites (2020-2023). 

-----------

Kerry's current research interests include: 

Wittgenstein and sound; Janmari and Fernand Deligny; Neurodiverse cinema; Buddhist practice and creativity.

Kerry is the author of six monographs:

• The Militant Historian: The Concept of History in the Work of Alain Badiou Bloomsbury Press, 2024

• Collected essays in Steve McCurry Untold: The Stories Behind the Photographs (London: Phaidon Press, 2018)

• Ballet (New York: Errata Press, 2011)

• Josef Müller-Brockmann (London: Phaidon Press, 2006)

• Weegee (London: Phaidon Press, 2004)

• Alexey Brodovitch (New York: Phaidon Press, 2002; Paperback 2011). French Edition: 2004

Kerry is also the Co-editor of

• The Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design (London: Phaidon Press, 2012)

His essays have been included various edited anthologies:  

• ‘Designing Art’ in Herbert Matter. Designer, Image-Maker (ECAL University Press, forthcoming 2026)

• ‘The Art of Photographics’ in Herbert Matter. Designer, Image-Maker (ECAL University Press, forthcoming, 2026)

• 'The Museum Poster as Design History' in Self-Promotion/Poster Collection 30 - Museum Fur Gestaltung, Zurich (Lars Muller Press, 2018)

• ‘Helvetica’ in Iconic Designs (Berg Press, 2014)

• ‘Mind that Child’ in Photoworks, Issue 19, (Autumn 2014)

• ‘Herbert Matter’ in 100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design in (Lars Muller Press, 2014)

• ‘Photo-Graphics: A History of photography and design in Swiss Graphics in 100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design (Lars Muller Press, 2014)

• Alphabet & Image in Writing and Research for Graphic Designers: A Designer's Manual to Strategic Communication and Presentation (Rockport Publishers, 2013)

• ‘Beethoven' (1955–59), 'Harper's Bazaar' (1934 – 1958), ‘Times New Roman' (1931), ‘Watch That Child!', (1953), ‘Lufthansa Otl Aicher' (1957), ‘Neue Grafik' (1958 – 1965), 'Fortune Magazine', (1930), 'All Roads Lead to Switzerland' (1935). Entries in The Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design (Phaidon Press, 2012)

• ‘The Graphic language of The Prisoner’, in I [Heart] Design (Rotovision Press, 2011)

• Extended captions in Steve McCurry: In the Shadow of the Mountains (Phaidon Press, 2007)

• ‘From Riff-Raff to Nil-by-Mouth: Reimagining the Working Class’ in Looking at Class: Film, Television and the Working Class in Britain (Rivers Oram Press, 2001)

Kerry has written over 100 reviews, articles, and interviews, which have been published in numerous magazines and newspapers, including The Guardian, Eye Magazine, Grafik, Baseline and have been featured on BBC Radio

Kerry has also curated several exhibitions:

• Co-curator of Alexey Brodovitch: The First Art Director! Museum fur Gestaltung, Zurich, Switzerland, 24 March, 2021 - 20 June, 2021

• Curator of 'Grunts & Grapples' - The Visual Culture of British Wrestling's Golden Age: Tunbridge Wells Museum & Art Gallery, 15 Sept 2016 - 14 Jan 2016; Doncaster Museum & Art Gallery, 1 April 2017 - 9 July 2017; Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, 13 April 2018 - 27 May 2018.

Kerry was the host, producer, and editor of a podcast from 2016 – 2018 entitled The Last Outpost