Michelle Shank was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She has been living and working in the UK since 1987. Her photographs have been exhibited and published in England, Europe, Australia, Mexico, South Africa and the U.S.A. She has undertaken numerous commissions for prominent galleries and magazines in the U.K. and abroad. Her work is held in both private and permanent collections and she was a recent prize winner in the prestigious Photographic Portrait competition at The National Portrait Gallery, London. In 2006 her monographBecomingwas published followed in 2007 byThe Water's Edge.