A Small Voice: Conversations with photographers and filmmakers

258 - Paul Seawright

Jun 18, 2025

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Paul Seawright is Professor of Photography and Deputy Vice Chancellor at Ulster University in Northern Ireland. His photographic work is held in many museum collections including The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Tate, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, International Centre of Photography New York, Arts Councils of Ireland, England and N.Ireland, UK Government Collection and the Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. In 2002 he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum London to undertake a war art commission in Afghanistan and his photographs of battle-sites and minefields have subsequently been exhibited in North America, Canada, Ireland, Spain, France, Germany, Korea, Japan and China. In 2003 he represented Wales at the Venice Biennale of Art and in 1997 won the Irish Museum of Modern Art/Glen Dimplex Prize. He is represented by the Kerlin Gallery Dublin.

Paul was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to higher education and the arts.

In episode 258, Paul discusses, among other things:

The influence of studying at Farnham..
and Martin Parr…
…And being at Newport
Not taking a position
‘Allusive documentary’
The danger of losing the meaning
The ethical considerations of working on foreign soil
The essential business of research
How do you find your next project?
His USA projects Volunteer and Things Left Unsaid
The importance of titles
His work from Rwanda, Beasts of Burden

Referenced:

Website | Instagram

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“‘Allusive documentary’ is probably a good way to think about it. For me, it’s really about - and this is the bit that goes back to my experience of photography in Northern Ireland, which was all about dramacentric imagery - how you can make photographs that have a documentary subject (that might be the closest I come to being a documentarian, that I work with the subject of documentary photography) but with the methodology of an artist. That’s kind of the way I like to frame it, and I think that follows through to the work which is nearly always conceived for the gallery wall.”

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