Sarah Pickering (born 1972) is a British visual artist working with photography^[1] and related media including 3D scanning and digital rendering, performance,^[2] appropriated objects and print. Her artist statement says she is interested in "fakes, tests, hierarchy, sci-fi, explosions, photography and gunfire."^[3] She is based in London.

Pickering's book Explosions, Fires and Public Order was published by Aperture in 2010. She has had solo exhibitions at Meessen De Clercq, Brussels (2009),^[4] Ffotogallery, Wales (2009),^[5] Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (MoCP, 2010),^[6] and Durham Art Gallery (2013);^[7] and was included in Manifesta 11 in Zurich (2016).^[8] Her work is held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; MoCP, Chicago, IL; and North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC.

She is a part-time Associate Professor in fine art media at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.^[9][10]

Pickering was born and raised in Durham, England, and attended Belmont Comprehensive School and Durham Sixth Form Centre.^[11] After a foundation course in art and design at Newcastle College (1991–1992), she was awarded a BA (Hons.) in photographic studies at the University of Derby (1992–1995), and a MA in photography at the Royal College of Art (2003–2005).^[12][13]

Her artist statement says she is interested in "fakes, tests, hierarchy, sci-fi, explosions, photography and gunfire."^[3]

Based in London, she is a part-time teaching fellow in fine art media at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.^[9][10]

"Match, 2015", was a 38 metre long public artwork installed at Castlegate Shopping Centre, Stockton-on-Tees between 2016 and 2017.^[14][15]

• Sarah Pickering - Explosions, Fires and Public Order. Aperture, 2010. ISBN 978-1597111232.

• Vitamin Ph, A survey of Contemporary Photography. Phaidon, 2006. ISBN 9780714856421.
• System Error: War is a Force that Gives us Meaning. Italy: Silvana, 2007. ISBN 9788836608423. Edited by L. Fusi and N. Mohaiemen.
• How We Are Photographing Britain from the 1840s to the present. London: Tate, 2007. ISBN 9781854377142. Edited by Val Williams and Susan Bright.
• In our World, New Photography in Britain. 2008. Milan: Skira. ISBN 9788861305434. Edited by Filippo Maggia. Pickering's contribution is on pages 142–151.
• Foam Album 08. Amsterdam: Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, 2008. ISBN 9789490022013.
• New Light: Jerwood Photography Awards 2003–08. Edinburgh: Portfolio Magazine, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9520608-4-0. With a foreword by Roanne Dods, an essay by Martin Barnes, and an afterword by Gloria Chalmers.
• Theatres of the Real. Antwerp: Fotomuseum Antwerp; Brighton: Photoworks, 2009. ISBN 9781903796269.
• Realtà Manipolate/Manipulating Reality. Alias, 2009. ISBN 9788896532041.
• C International Photo Magazine 09. London: Ivorypress, 2009. ISBN 9780955961335.
• Bruit De Fond/Background Noise. Je Suis une Bande de Jeunes, 2010. ISBN 9782953350616.
• Afterwards: Contemporary Photography Confronting the Past. London: Thames & Hudson, 2011. ISBN 9780500543986. Edited by Nathalie Herschdorfer.
• Public Relations. SAFLE Commission, 2012. ISBN 9780950820163.
• Hijacked III: Australia / United Kingdom. Cottesloe, WA: Big City; Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2012. ISBN 9783868282856. Exhibition catalogue.
• The Photographer's Playbook: 307 Assignments and Ideas. New York: Aperture, 2014. ISBN 978-1-59711-247-5. Edited by Gregory Halpern and Jason Fulford.
• Staging Disorder. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2015. ISBN 9781910433157. Edited by Christopher Stewart and Esther Teichmann.
• Revelations. London: Mack, 2015. Edited by Ben Burbridge. ISBN 9781907946455.

• 2005: Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers Photography Prize, Royal College of Art.^[16]
• 2005: The Photographers' Gallery Graduate Award, London.^[17]
• 2005: Jerwood Photography Award, for Public Order. Other winners were Daniel Gustav Cramer, Nina Mangalanayagam, Oliver Parker, and Luke Stephenson.^[18][19]
• 2008: Peter S. Reed Award, Peter S. Reed Foundation, USA.^[20]
• 2015: Refocus: the Castlegate mima Photography Prize, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. A commission to produce "Match, 2015".^[21][22]

• Fire Scene, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York City, 2008.^[23]
• Explosion, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels, 2009.^[4]
• Holding Fire, Ffotogallery, Wales, 2009.^[5]
• Incident Control, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, 2010.^[6]
• Aim & Fire, included Celestial Objects and other works, Durham Art Gallery, Durham, England. Part of The Social: Encountering Photography festival, 2013, for which Celestial Objects was commissioned.^[7][24]

• Part of East International festival, Norwich, UK, 2005. Selected by Gustav Metzger.^[25]
• How We Are: Photographing Britain from the 1840s to the Present, Tate Britain, London, 2007. Curated by Val Williams and Susan Bright.^[26]
• 'Theatres of the Real' – Contemporary British Post-Documentary Photography, Fotomuseum Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, 2009. Curated by David Green and Joanna Lowry.^[27]
• Manipulating Reality: How Images Redefine the World, Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy, 2009/10.^[28]
• Signs of a Struggle: Photography in the Wake of Postmodernism, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2011.^[29][30] Curated by Marta Weiss.
• An Orchestrated Vision: The Theater of Contemporary Photography, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, 2012.^[31][32][33]
• Living in the Ruins of the Twentieth Century, UTS Gallery, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, 2013.^[34][35]
• Revelations: Experiments in Photography, Media Space, Science Museum, London, 2015;^[36] National Media Museum, Bradford, 2015/16.^[37] Co-curated by Greg Hobson and Ben Burbridge.
• Professions Performing in Art, Manifesta 11, Zurich, 2016. Curated by Christian Jankowski and Francesca Gavin.^[8]

Pickering's work is held in the following permanent collections:

• Victoria and Albert Museum, London: 2 prints^[38][39]
• Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL: 2 prints^[40][41]
• North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC: 3 prints^[42][43][44]
• LACMA, Los Angeles, USA: 1print^[45]
• Brooklyn Museum: 1 print^[46]

• Official website
• Video interview from 2010 in which Susan Bright gives an introduction to Pickering, who talks about her Public Order series
• Video interviews about making the "Match, 2015" commission for Refocus: the Castlegate mima Photography Prize