Badger studied architecture at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art (Dundee), graduating with a diploma in 1969.
Badger is the author of a number of books on photography.
The two volumes then published of The Photobook: A History, which Badger co-wrote with Martin Parr, won the 2006 book award for photography from the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation. The second volume won a Deutscher Fotobuchpreis (German Photobook Prize). His book The Pleasures of Good Photographs won the International Center for Photography's Infinity Award, Writing category, in 2011.
As a photographer, Badger identifies his usual subject matter as "landscapes and accretions of history".
Through the Looking Glass: Photographic Art in Britain 1945–1989,Barbican Arts Centre, London, 1989 (with John Benton-Harris).
Publications by Badger
Photographer as Printmaker: 140 Years of Photographic Printmaking. London: Arts Council of Great Britain and Northampton, England: Belmont Press, 1981. ISBN 0-7287-0294-0.
Eugène Atget. London: Macdonald, 1985. ISBN 0-356-10852-X. The work of Eugène Atget.
Chris Killip 55. London: Phaidon, 2001. ISBN 0-7148-4028-9. On Chris Killip.
Eugène Atget 55. London: Phaidon, 2001. ISBN 0-7148-4049-1. On Eugène Atget.
Collecting Photography. London: Mitchell Beazley, 2003. ISBN 1-84000-726-5.
The Genius of Photography. London: Quadrille, 2007. ISBN 1-84400-363-9.
The Pleasures of Good Photographs: Essays. New York: Aperture, 2010. ISBN 978-1-59711-139-3.
It was a grey day - Photographs of Berlin. Peperoni Books, 2015. ISBN 978-3941825802.
Publications with others
Photo Texts. London: Travelling Light, 1988. ISBN 0-906333-22-9. Essays by Badger and Peter Turner.
Through the Looking Glass: Photographic art in Britain 1945–1989. London: Barbican Art Gallery, 1989. ISBN 0-85331-560-4. Coedited by Badger and John Benton-Harris.
The Photobook: A History Volume I. London: Phaidon, 2004. ISBN 0-7148-4285-0. With Martin Parr.
The Photobook: A History Volume II. London: Phaidon, 2006. ISBN 0-7148-4433-0. With Martin Parr.
The Photobook: A History Volume III. London: Phaidon, 2014. ISBN 978-0-714866-77-2. With Martin Parr.
Photobook Phenomenon. Munich: Prestel; CCCB/RM/Fundació Foto Colectania, 2017. A box set of eight booklets of writing, one each by Moritz Neumüller and Lesley Martin, Markus Schaden and Frederic Lezmi, Martin Parr, Horacio Fernández, Ryuichi Kaneko, Badger ("Propaganda books versus protest books"), Erik Kessels, and Irene de Mendoza and Neumüller. ISBN 978-8417047054.
Publications with contributed photographs by Badger
One Day: 10 Photographers. Heidelberg, Germany: Kehrer, 2011. ISBN 978-3-86828-173-6. A boxed set, edited by Harvey Benge, of ten books of photographs taken on 20 June 2010, each book by one of Badger, Jessica Backhaus, Benge, John Gossage, Todd Hido, Rob Hornstra, Rinko Kawauchi, Eva Maria Ocherbauer, Martin Parr and Alec Soth.
Publications with contributed texts by Badger
A Short History of Photography by Harvey Benge. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2008. ISBN 1-904587-51-8. Introduction by Badger.
Photography, Vol. 2, A New Vision of the World, 1891 - 1940. Milan: Skira, 2012. ISBN 9788857210322. Texts by Badger, Clément Chéroux, Sandra S. Phillips, Ulrich Pohlmann and Francesco Zanot.
The Chinese Photobook. New York: Aperture, 2015. ISBN 978-1597112284. By Martin Parr and WassinkLundgren. Texts by Badger, Gu Zheng, Stephanie Tung, Raymund Lum and Ruben Lundgren.
