Paul Jeff was born and raised in N.Yorkshire and completed a degree in Photographic Studies from Derby in 1987, studying under John Blakemore, Olivier Richon and John X Berger. After graduation he moved to Cardiff to form the photographic partnership ‘Klanger & Boink' with photographer Elizabeth McDonough. This partnership was active for over ten years and achieved considerable notoriety, published widely throughout Europe, Japan, S.America and the USA, and being selected for the European Photography Prize - The ICI, Fox-Talbot Award at the National Portrait Gallery in 1992. Working both commercially and artistically the duo had a varied and experimental practice, split between fine-art practices, shooting cd covers for musicians such as Marc Almond, and portrait commissions for artistes like Cerys Matthews and Anna Friel among others. As well as contributing to ‘Time Out' magazine in London for a number of years, they undertook advertising work for Wrangler Jeans and Apple Tango, as well as international touring shows such as ‘The Art of Verneer', still currently in Brazil. They were represented by The Special Photographers Company in London, and have work in permanent collections at the National Portrait Gallery, Bradford Museum of Photography and private collections in the UK and United States.

Jeff's practice since 2000 has been tied up with his subsequent career in academia (joining the staff of Swansea Metropolitan University in 1997), in particular with PhD studies into a temporal or time-based exposition of photography; this thesis demonstrates a theory of ‘performed photography' as well as detailing a temporal compliment to the ‘decisive moment' and a critique of the historical ‘spatialization' of representation.

The doctoral research comes to fruition in Jan 2008.

In this time he has worked extensively in experimental theatre for Brith Gof, Pearson/Brookes Co. and Good Cop Bad Cop, as well as creating many examples of ‘performed photography' under the name Paul a, which can be seen on Jeff's web-site; www.morebeautifulthangod.com
This second phase experimental photographic work has been performed and published widely and in 2006/7 he was selected for a survey of contemporary British Portraiture by curator Susan Bright, which was shown at the Fremantle Festival of Photography and the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney, Australia. This experimental practice has also been the subject of published papers, in the UK and USA, by academic researchers in other universities.

Jeff's most current work "I Watched Her until She Disappeared", an audio/visual work of political art-theatre, deals with the continuing abduction and murder of young women in N.Mexico and will be shown at the Chihuahua Museum, Mexico in March 2008.

Jeff continues to write and publish papers in journals and conferences.
He is also a long-serving member of the Board of Ffotogallery Wales;
a founder member of TRAWS - the inter-university research group into performance in Wales;
and an external examiner for University of the Arts, London (London College of Fashion) and the University of Chester.
He continues to teach extensively on the MA Photography and the Photography degree programmes at Swansea.

Recent Performances, Exhibitions, Publications::

2003 - Sept - ‘The Madeleine Project', performance/presentation for ‘Practice as Research in Performance' (PARIP) conference, Bristol Univ. (Paul a)
2003 - ‘The Art of Veneer', Gallery Raskol Nicov, Dresden, Germany. (Klanger & Boink)
2004 - ‘The Art of Veneer' Sept-Nov. ‘ Body-construct' Live Art ‘ Through the Lens media', Espaco Anexo gallery, Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Klanger & Boink)
2004 - Sept. - "There's somebody in the House ....." , performance- Phoenix Arts Centre, Exeter Univ. Symposium on Site Specific Performance. (Pearson /Brookes Co.)
2004 - Sept. - 24 hr. Hotel performance. ‘ Life is Perfect' - 50 murders, 50 photographs. (Paul a)
2004 - Oct. - Experimentica Festival(international) Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff.(Paul a) stage performance version of ‘ Life is Perfect'.
2005 - CPR Conference (Centre for Performance Research), Aberystwyth, Joint (TRAWS) Paper (Apr 05).
2005 - Cwfryng Conference, Univ. of Glamorgan, Joint (TRAWS)paper. (Apr.05)
2005 - ‘The Addition', galleria acbeu, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. (Klanger & Boink)
2005 - Source (periodical - autumn 05) - Life is Perfect.
2005 - Oct - Untitled plus Support - 6 hr performed Installation. Experimentica Festival (international)
Chapter arts centre, Cardiff. (Good Cop Bad Cop)
2006 - Mar - ‘More Beautiful Than God' performances (2), Fotofreo Festival Fremantle, W.Australia. (Paul a)
2006 - Mar - Fotofreo festival, Fremantle, Australia. Selected group exhibition 1 1=3. Contemporary British Portraiture - collaborative. (Paul a)
2006 - U W College Newport, Conference paper -‘Estranged Realities' (June 06)
2006 - Plymouth University, Symposium presentation - ‘Landscape Fictions'. (June 06
2006 - Jul - Strata Florida/Kells International Sculpture exhibition.-
performance installation (Good Cop Bad Cop)
2006 - ‘Re-Imaging Wales' (annual periodical - Dec. 06) - ‘Life is Perfect'
2007 - Feb - ‘I Watched Her Until She Disappeared' - large-scale durational work with Mexican actress, Maria Sanchez, and Italian photographer, Emanuela Contini. Northern Ireland. (Paul a)
2007 - 1 1=3. Contemporary British Portraiture - collaborative. Australian- Centre for Photography, Sydney. Apr/May
2007 - National Gallery of Wales, Cardiff. (May 07) Gallery Lecture , Angus McBean summer exhibition.
2007 - Unfolding the Cards: Art, Aesthetics and Education. Research Symposium. The Institute for Educational Research. University of Oslo, Norway. (Aug 07) Paper, and practice presentations (2)

www.fotofreo.com
www.source.ie
www.acp.org.au
www.morebeautifulthangod.com