Wendy McMurdo
was born in Edinburgh where she initially trained as a painter. She left the UK in the mid 1980s for the Pratt Institute, New York. While studying there, she turned to photography and on returning to the UK, began to work for the first time with this medium.
After completing an MA at Goldsmiths College, London, she was awarded a two-year fellowship by The Henry Moore Foundation and subsequently produced her first major solo exhibition In a Shaded Place. Working for the first time with the computer, she produced a series that explored the intersection between autographic photography and the digital image.
In 2014 a mid-career retrospective exhibition of her work Digital Play was included as part of Generation – 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland, a nationwide programme of exhibitions and events celebrating the last 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland. This comprehensive exhibition brought together works from several of her film and photography projects. In 2015 she was awarded a PhD by publication by the University of Westminster for her work exploring the relationship of children and photography to the computer.