Tag: Sectarian Murder

Paul Seawright – Sectarian Murder

Paul Seawright grew up and began his photographic practice in North Belfast. He completed his degree in Photography, Film and Video Studies at West Surrey College of Art and Design, and gained a PhD from the University of Wales. He is currently Head of the School of Art, and Professor of Photography at the University of Ulster.

Seawright describes his work as best known for ‘post conflict landscape that deals with memory, identity, place, landscape and landscape production. And they are all bound together by one common theme, …the city’ (Seawright 2014).

In his series, Sectarian Murder, Seawright presents images of sites on the outskirts of Belfast where victims of sectarian murders were found during the early 1970’s. Seawright pairs each image with a newspaper report of the murder. He removed all references to religion of victim, thereby commenting generally on civilian loses during ‘The Troubles’. The series was very much about ‘the banality of the place and that these places only become changed…. when you know what happened there’ (Seawright 2014).

Another recurring theme across his work is ‘the invisible, the unseen, the subject matter that doesn’t easily present itself to the camera’ (Seawright).

Some critics claim that Seawright work isn’t explicit enough, leaving the viewer searching for an ambiguous and obscure narrative. Seawright however, suggests that his work must strike a fine balance, ‘if its too explicit, then it becomes journalistic…. if it’s too ambiguous, it becomes meaningless’ (Seawright 2013).

Seawright (2013) believes that good art must visually engage people and draw them in, then give itself up slowly, revealing it’s meaning. For him, the exiting thing about art is that the construction of meaning is done by the viewer and that successful art will allow space for that to happen otherwise you risk it being closer to an editorial picture in a magazine.

Reference

Badger, G. (2007) The Genius of Photography: How photography has changed our lives, London: Quadrille.

Cotton, C. (2009) the photograph as contemporary art, new ed. London: Thames & Hudson.

Imperial War Museum (2013) ‘Catalyst: Paul Seawright’, Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War , available:  https://vimeo.com/channels/606847/76940827 [accessed 26 Aug 2018].

Nation Gallery of Ireland (2014) ‘Paul Seawright in conversation’ , 14 Apr, available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL0QBCYuxpg [accessed 26 Aug 2018].

Seawright, P. (2018) Paul Seawright [online], available: http://www.paulseawright.com/sectarian/ [accessed 26 Aug 2018].