The story of me as a photographer begins on the day when our family apartment got burned down together with thousands of prints and negatives my father, an ardent amateur photographer, had accumulated. On that day I became one of those 'refugees' with no photographs, with no past. Indeed, my memories of the events and people I encountered before that Sunday in September 1991 are either non-existent or very vague. I learned then the power photography has over memory. The day after the fire was the last time my father took a photograph, a perfunctory snapshot to record the damage for the insurance company. Where he stopped, I started. The act of photographing, of looking at the world through the camera lens, helped provide a semblance of control over an otherwise unpredictable world.
I work predominantly through the medium of photography, film and installation. My practice explores the issues of gender, stereotyping and the effects of exile and displacement on memory and identity. Since receiving a distinction for my MFA in 2008 (University of Wales, Newport), I won a significant number of awards including Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor Award’s Special Recognition from Duke University, numerous Bursaries and Project Awards. In December 2013, I completed PhD and finalized an important three-year long project 'YU: The Lost Country' that culminated in a critically acclaimed touring exhibition and a book. My work is in many collections including Irish State Art Collection and I have exhibited widely internationally.
Education
2013 PhD, European Centre for Photographic Research, University of Wales, Newport, UK
2008 MFA Documentary Photography, University of Wales, Newport, UK [distinction]
1998 BA Psychology, University of Rijeka, Croatia [distinction]
Selected Awards
2016 Nominated for Deutsche Börse Photography Prize
2016 Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award
2016 Bursary Award by Arts Council Ireland
2016 Awarded a six week residency at Centre Culturel Irlandaise, Summer 2017
2016 Nominated for Prix Pictet Award (also 2015 and 2014)
2015 YU: The Lost Country book on THE BEST BOOKS OF 2015 LISTS: on 1) Photobook Store by Rob Hornstra,
Photo-Eye by two experts: 2) John Phelan and 3) Daniel Boetker Smith, 4) The Best Books from the East List (The Calvert
Journal), on 5) Colin Pantal's The Best of 2015 List, The Best Eastern European Photobook 2015 by 6) Rob Honstra and
7) Ieva Meilutė- Svinkūnienė, 8) Gabriela Cendoya Best Books 2015 - see the links in Press
2014 Special Recognition by Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor Prize for YU: The Lost Country
2014 Wexford Arts Centre & The Arts Council's Emerging Visual Artist Award Ireland
2014 Arts Council Ireland Project Award for new work My Own Unknown
2014 Bursary Award by Arts Council Ireland
2014 Awarded a residential studio award at Firestation Studios, Dublin, Ireland
2014 Awarded a three year membership studio at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dubin, Ireland.
2014 MACK First Book Award, nomination
2013 Bursary Award, Arts Council Ireland
2013 (and 2012) Project funding, Belfast Exposed in association with the Arts Council Northern Ireland, UK
2012 Selected for Plat(t)forms 2013 at Winterthur Fotomuseum, Switzerland.
2012 Artist Studio Award 2013, Royal Hibernian Academy, Ireland
2012 Travel and Training Award, Arts Council Ireland
2011 Travel and Training Award, Arts Council Ireland
2011 Student Graduate Prize, The International Rebecca West Society, New York, USA
2011 The Curtin O’Donoghue Emerging Photographic Artist Award, RHA, Dublin, Ireland
2011 Awarded Imagine Ireland program funding, Culture Ireland, Ireland
2010 Travel and Training Award, Arts Council Ireland
2009 Shortlisted for the Emerging Visual Artist Award 2009, Wexford Arts Centre, Ireland
2009 Project Award, Wales Arts International, Wales, UK
2009 MAstars, an annual selection of the most promising artists from the UK's leading MA courses, UK
Solo Exhibitions
2017 My Own Unknown, Centre Culturel Irlandaise, Paris, France [November - December]
2017 YU: The Lost Country, FORMAT, Derby, UK [March - April]
2017 My Own Unknown, A Process Series II, Rawson Projects Gallery, New York, USA [February]
2016 YU: The Lost Country, Westport Town Hall, Westport Arts Festival [September - October]
2016 My Own Unknown, Spot Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia [September - October]
2016 My Own Unknown, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia [August - September]
2016 My Own Unknown, Oliver Sears Gallery Dublin, during PhotoIreland 2016 [June-August]
2016 YU: The Lost Country, Agusti Centelles Library, part of DOCfield 2016 festival [May - June]
2016 YU: The Lost Country, Meeting Point Cinema, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina [March - May]
2016 YU: The Lost Country, Illuminations Exhibitions, Maynooth University, Ireland [January - February]
2016 My Own Unknown, Wexford Arts Centre, Ireland [February -March]
2015 YU: The Lost Country, Feld+Haus Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany [September - October]
2015 100 Muses, ArtBox, Dublin, Ireland [May - June]
2014 YU: The Lost Country, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland [September -November]
2014 Let's Get Metaphysical, joint exhibition with Andreas Diefenbach, Noho, Hamburg, Germany [February]
2013 YU: The Lost Country, Belfast Exposed, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK [October - December]
2011 Seeing Things, Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, Ireland
2011 A Riddle, Riverbank Art Center, Newbridge, Ireland
2009 Seeing Things, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales, UK
Selected Group Exhibitions
2016 In Residence II exhibition featuring works of Picasso, Warhol, Arbus, etc, London, UK
2016 YU: The Lost Country screening at Obscura Festival, George Town, Malaysia
2016 The Museum of August Destiny exhibition at Lismore Castle Arts
2016 Royal Hibernian Academy's 186th Annual Exhibition, Dublin, Ireland
2015 Photo Kathamndu, Nepal - 2 artist talks
2015 Royal Hibernian Academy's 185th Annual Exhibition, Dublin, Ireland
2015 Once Upon a Picture Exhibition, The Arc, Dublin, Ireland
2014 Periodical Review #4, Pallas Projects, Dublin, Ireland and 2015 in Ormston House, Limerick
2014 184th Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition, Dublin, Ireland
2013 Fading Lights Are Fading, Flood, Dublin, Ireland
2013 New Irish Works, National Photographic Archive, PhotoIreland Festival 2013, Dublin, Ireland
2013 Belfast Photo Festival Open Submission exhibition, Belfast, UK
2012 40/40/40: Selected works from the Irish State Art Collection, traveling exhibition (Rome, Brussels, Paris)
2012 Newport Alumni Exhibition, Newport, Wales, UK
2012 Elements: A joint exhibition of Public Sector Art Works, travelling - Northern Ireland and Ireland
2011 Human/Nature Landscape Photography from the Irish State Art Collection, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2011 Emergentes DST 2011, Portuguese PhotoFestival ENCONTROS DA IMAGEM, Monastery of Tibães, Portugal
2011 181st RHA Annual Exhibition, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland
2011 Disruptive Stillness, Jean Paul Slusser Gallery, University of Michigan
2010 Collective Contemporary Art (CCA), Royal Dublin Society, Dublin, Ireland
2010 My World: Visions of 21st Century Feminism, The European Women’s Lobby Photography Prize Exhibition, Brussels
2009 What is Crime? (Best British crime photography), 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, London, UK
2008 (Not) a Photograph, Mestna galerija, Piran, Slovenia
2008 178th Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland
Public Art Commissions
2016 Subtopian Ballad, depicting South Dublin County for In Context 4
2006 Photography Depicting Poverty in Ireland, Combat Poverty Agency, Ireland
Selected Publications
2015 Featured essay 'Photography: Fact and Fiction' in Autumn Issue of Archivo Magazine
2015 YU: The Lost Country book
2013 New Irish Works, an overview of contemporary photography in Ireland
2012 Blood flows, and life goes on, Archivo magazine, Issue 1, Identity: p.101-121,
2011 Seeing Things book
Film work
Get the Picture? researcher, director of photography (2012)
