Beyond View

About The Exhibition

Beyond View brings together twenty-five photographers, marking the ten-year anniversary of the Photography Department at Ulster University’s Belfast School of Art. As students, graduates and staff of the BA, MFA and Phd Photography programmes, these photographers provide us with a contemporary perspective on place. A continual challenge within all art practice, and particularly within the photographic practice, is the ability to locate a place, which speaks both within and beyond itself. Curated by Belfast Exposed, the origins of this exhibition lie within a question posted by the Belfast School of Art Photography Department, which seeks to determine the photographic voice via the ways in which we locate or dislocate that voice.

Belfast Exposed has a rich and varied understanding of the photography graduates of Ulster University’s Belfast School of Art, having represented a number of them since the launch of the Belfast Exposed Futures programme in 2015. It understands that being a young photographer, belonging to the future, has very little to do with actual age. It has to do with qualities that allow the photographer to use the medium of photography in a way that illuminates the now. Beyond View provides a nod to that which is beyond the now, out of view, that which lies ahead even. This is of course the unknown and it reminds us that photography’s contradictory relationship with time renders it permanently in the past, while continually aiming at the future. The same might also be said of education. As such, this exhibition, whilst marking ten years of a Photography Department, does not strive to be a summary of the work produced during those ten years. It is, in fact, acutely conscious of how much is absent in what is present.

- Ailbhe Greaney, Lecturer in Photography, Belfast School of Art, Ulster University

Photography at the Belfast School of Art, Ulster University:

Since opening in 2007 the photography department at the Belfast School of Art has produced a thriving community of alumni across Ireland and beyond and built strong connections with institutions and individuals in art and industry. Our international reputation has grown and this year has seen the highest number yet of international students coming here to learn with us. That reputation is based on a unique sensibility developing out of a strong sense of place.

Northern Ireland has a historical and cultural context like few others. Conflict gave us a unique perspective on the role of images in giving - or denying - voice and representation to our stories and experiences. Part of its legacy has been a heightened sense of the significance of our surroundings, everyday lives, histories and land. Through this focused attention we have made work that responds to questions of home, migration, history, gender, war, family, sexuality, land, trauma, community, propaganda and technology.

This sensibility informs our foremost aim as educators: to develop our students’ own voices and sense of authorship over their subject matter. We strive for authenticity and are committed to our ongoing evolution to meet the possibilities and challenges of both our changing medium and the world around us.

- Clare Gallagher, Course Director, BA (Hons) Photography with Video, Belfast School of Art, Ulster University