Gareth McConnell

Gareth McConnell’s work is dominated by successive series of simple but highly eloquent portraits of outsider figures, survivors who have lived life to an extreme. Born in Carrickfergus, McConnell’s own experience has been shaped by the violent tensions of Northern Ireland’s recent history, and there is a strong autobiographical element in the dialogue and empathy he develops with his sitters. From his powerful portraits of loyalists in the Albert Bar in Carrickfergus to the photographs of an exotic community of young ex-pat’s in Ibiza, McConnell’s work blends matter-of-factness with disarming intensity. Using only natural light, his photographs celebrate the fragile momentary encounter, while transforming it into something memorable and enduring. This monograph includes a wide range of work from 1995 to the present, beginning with the series “Anti-Social Behavior,” which looks at people who have endured punishing beatings in Northern Ireland, and including “Portraits from the Albert Bar,” his celebrated series “Wherever You Go,” portraits from the Quay Foyer young peoples’ center in Poole, “Boxers,” a series of portraits from a boxing club in Bournemouth, and the recent “Portraits from Ibiza” series. In addition, this book will feature several non-portrait series, including the painterly “Sectarian Murals,” close-up details of murals in Belfast and “My Grandfather’s House,” an elegiac look at the contents of a house before they were sold.

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