Essays
ESSAY
Not Just a Wedding Photographer – Isolation Week 10
“On week 2 I took a walk and passed a field with a football net. I saw the shot I wanted, I just couldn’t get it then. On my walk this week I finally got the photo I had envisaged. Lonely, rusted football nets, in a large overgrown field, capturing a sense of time and abandonment.”
ESSAY
Not Just a Wedding Photographer – Isolation Week 9
“One of the better things to come out of this pandemic, is connecting more with family members that I would usually see at weddings or funerals. We now gather weekly for a big family quiz online, and it’s the highlight of our week. So while we are all apart, we are still coming together.”
ESSAY
Not Just a Wedding Photographer – Isolation Week 8
“This week consisted of short walks with the dog, redecorating our home which we have been in for nearly 3 years and social distancing catch-ups with my dad and neighbours. It is strange to think that this is how our life will be for the foreseeable.”
ESSAY
Not Just a Wedding Photographer – Isolation Week 7
“This was the week that we heard some countries starting the process of slowly going back to normal, which is great. But I can’t help but feel this might be the calm before the storm…..I hope I’m wrong.”
ESSAY
Not Just a Wedding Photographer – Isolation Week 6
“For the first time ever this week, a HSC van sent from Belfast arrived to deliver some medication which I usually collect myself, but the hospital is a no go zone for me at the minute. It was fairly exciting when we saw it pull up. We now get as excited as Rossi when the doorbell goes.”
AWARD
Belfast Exposed Excellence in Training Award
“Michael has trained with Belfast Exposed for years and in that time has grown as a photographer and artist. His unique approach to using low tech instant photography interlinked with personal experiences, has made him the stand out trainee for 2020.”
ESSAY
Not Just a Wedding Photographer – Isolation Week 5
“The days are starting to roll into one. Lauren had a week off work for Easter and until then she was always the one who was aware of the day and date. Now the two most repeated sentences in our house are ‘‘What will we make for dinner?’’ and ‘‘What day is this?’’.”
ESSAY
Not Just a Wedding Photographer – Isolation Week 4
“The sunny weather has been great, spending more time in the garden, and having a BBQ a few times a week. We’re making the best of a bad situation. We no longer watch the daily live broadcasts from the Government, or pay attention to any news if we can help it, and replacing it with more video calls to family.”
ESSAY
Artist Talk: Post Truth – The new normal of the undefined, abstract, and make believe
“Indeed, good visual storytelling, which is a key attribute of photography, is always challenging. The stories don’t write themselves; they require curiosity, investigation, interaction, reflection, and considered presentation.”
ESSAY
Not Just a Wedding Photographer – Isolation Week 3
“This was the week I received my letter from the GP telling me to stay indoors at all times. So now we have started to have shopping delivered to the house, and disinfecting it as a standard before it gets put away.”
ESSAY
Not Just a Wedding Photographer – Isolation Week 2
“Days are filled with jobs around the house, my photo project, podcasts and walking the dog. Nights are usually filled with a movie or face-timing family members.”
INTERVIEW
Interview with ‘Futures Artist’ Ben Malcolmson
“From a young age, Malcolmson participated in workshops with Belfast Exposed, and followed that by taking part in Summer Schemes and the Young Futures programme.”
ESSAY
Not Just a Wedding Photographer – Isolation Week 1
“During my time of self Isolation, I’ve been working on a photo project, one that’s keeping me busy, bettering my photography skills and challenging me every day.”
VOLUNTEER PICK
Ray K. Metzker: Landscapes
“From a distance the composites look like abstract mosaics. Closer up they are a series of individual frames, which can be read either sequentially or as a whole.”
ESSAY
Exhibition Response: Rohingya
“For a contemporary viewer, the suffering locked in these lens based images – which are but fragments – has power of truth about all humanity.”
ESSAY
Cordon Sanitaire
“Through his work, increasingly widely recognised, Frankie Quinn has surely done more than any other group or individual to bring them to national and international attention.”
VOLUNTEER PICK
Picturing New York: Photographs from the Museum of Modern Art
“The iconic photographers that pursued these images show the everyday and the extraordinary. They encompass ever so gently, almost wrapping, the gritty soul of New York.”
ESSAY
“In my imagination, it was true”: Artist Talk by Max Pinckers
“Pinckers began by explaining his interest in documentary photography, which he described as “touching the essence of photography”, because the image you capture is a snapshot of what is actually there.”
ESSAY
Exhibition Response: ‘Inside Out – New Photography from China’
“The overall meaning of this exhibition is the oneness of the world – while accepting differences. It also signals friendship among nations, while respecting differences.”