Paul Duke was born and educated in Edinburgh. He studied photography at Napier College (now Edinburgh Napier University) before going on to gain a Master of Arts degree from the Royal College of Art in 1989.
In 1995 he was included in the National Galleries of Scotland landmark exhibition, ‘Light from the Dark Room: A Celebration of Scottish Photography’.
With a teaching career spanning 30 years, he taught photography at several art colleges across BA and MA programmes, latterly at Middlesex University, London, where he was Senior Lecturer.
In 2016 he was recipient of the Royal Scottish Academy Morton Award, an annual prize for a lens-based media artist. He currently lives and works between London and Scotland.
More recently, (November 2022 - February 2023), No Ruined Stone was shown at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh - the first time that the series has been presented as a full-scale exhibition, bringing the photographs back to the artist’s home city.
He has exhibited widely and his work is held in various private and public collections, including:
National Portrait Gallery, London
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh
Royal Museums Greenwich, National Maritime Museum, London
University of St Andrews Special Collections, St Andrews
National Science and Media Museum, Bradford
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, Aberdeen
Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine
City Art Centre, Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, Heritage Collections, Edinburgh
Library Collections (Books)
Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) Library Collection, New York
Tate Library and Archive, London
National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
German National Library, Frankfurt and Leipzig
The British Library, London
National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo
University of Oxford, Oxford
Princeton University Library, New Jersey
Martin Parr Foundation Library, Bristol
He has published two books, most recently, in 2018 - No Ruined Stone, Hartmann Books, Stuttgart, Germany.
Design Peter Willberg / Essay Martin Barnes / Editor Zelda Cheatle / Publisher Markus & Angelika Hartmann.
In 2013 he published, At Sea, P&P Editions, London, UK
Design Peter Willberg / Text John Bellany
He lives and works between London and his native Scotland.