Beneath The Surface
Belfast Exposed is delighted to host ‘Beneath the Surface’ brings together a new generation of photographic voices emerging from the MFA Photography programme at Ulster University. The exhibition presents a collective yet deeply personal inquiry into the act of looking, examining how photography can reveal hidden narratives, challenge perception and expose the emotional and psychological layers that often exist beneath everyday experience.
The exhibition proposes that seeing is never a neutral act, but rather an active, deliberate and often unstable form of communication that reveals as much about the observer as the observed. Through diverse photographic approaches and conceptual investigations, the artists navigate themes of memory, identity, place, trauma, transformation, belonging and the fragility of human connection.
Working across documentary photography, constructed image-making, experimental processes and expanded photographic practice, the exhibiting artists each bring distinctive perspectives while collectively exploring photography’s capacity to question certainty and uncover what frequently remains unseen or unspoken.
The exhibition reflects the ambition, criticality and creative experimentation fostered through the MFA Photography programme and offers audiences an opportunity to engage with a wide range of contemporary photographic practices emerging from Northern Ireland today.
Featured Artists
- Catherine Willis
- Conn McCarrick
- David McKinney
- David Wright
- Dominic McNamee
- Joanne Mullin
- Jonathan Sheridan
- Philip Gibson
- Sarah Beatty
For over forty years, Belfast Exposed has remained committed to supporting emerging and early-career artists by providing a platform for experimentation, visibility and professional development. Through exhibitions, mentoring opportunities, public engagement and critical dialogue, Belfast Exposed continues to play a significant role in nurturing photographic practice across Northern Ireland and beyond. The annual MFA exhibition has become an important part of this commitment, offering graduating artists the opportunity to present ambitious new work within a professional gallery context while introducing audiences to some of the most exciting new photographic talent currently emerging from the region.