Kenton/Davey (Aishah Kenton & Sean Davey) are photographers, curators and educators whose shared practices stem from long-held interests in documentary and observational photography.
Kenton/Davey are principally concerned with contemporary daily life and the intersection of personal and social issues. The pair have exhibited in, and curated numerous photographic exhibitions across Australia, with their work held in state and national collections.
With a passion for community engagement and process, Kenton/Davey explore photography as tool for discovery and connection, self-expression and record.
In 2021 Aishah Kenton and Sean Davey founded Pacific Centre for Photographic Arts, a non-profit photography education organisation that facilitates creative experiences within communities.
Selected works by both photographers are available through Open Editions. Co.
(Nur) Aishah Kenton is a photographer, artist, curator and facilitator. Having grown up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Aishah moved to Australia in 2016 and graduated from the Australian National University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (2018), majoring in photography at the School of Art and Design.
Aishah’s work was been featured in the British Journal of Photography’s 2022 ‘Ones to Watch - Community’, highlighting up-and-coming photographic artists from around the world. In 2018 Aishah was awarded an Emerging Artist Support Scheme Award by Goulburn Regional Gallery for her graduating exhibition To Whom It May Concern.
In 2017 Aishah was a finalist in the Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women. In 2020 she was awarded a coveted spot in the 2020 Chico Portfolio Review in Montana, USA, a finalist in the CLIP Landscape Award at Perth Centre For Photography, and long-listed for Foam Talent Call, Amsterdam.
In 2022, Aishah was selected for the US/Australian publication Monster Children, 'Bright Young Things' - a collection of young talent selected across art, film, skate, surf, and photography.
Sean (Saeed) Davey is a documentary photographer with over 20 years of professional editorial experience. Sean is currently the subject coordinator and lecturer in photojournalism in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne.
In 2020 Sean was awarded 2nd Place in the World Press Photo Awards (Contemporary Issues) and named the Overall Winner of the National Rural Press Club Awards for Excellence in Journalism. In the same year, he was shortlisted for the 2020 Australian Photography Awards for photographs made during the Black Summer bushfire season.
From 2005-2014 Sean worked extensively in Papua New Guinea, where he facilitated community education programs with the University of Papua New Guinea.
Sean’s work has been recognised in the National Photographic Portrait Prize (Highly Commended 2016) and the Moran Contemporary Photography Prize (Highly Commended 2009), with work also exhibited in the William & Winifred Bowness Photography Prize (2007 & 2001) at the Monash Gallery of Art.
Sean has developed photography programs for the Gallery of Modern Art/Queensland Art Gallery (GOMA) and the ACT Government + Australia Council’s Artist-in-Schools program. From 2011-18 Sean was the founder/director of The Photography Room gallery, an independent photography gallery based in Canberra.