Exhibition to show personal work of late photographer Harry Kerr

Artlink at Dunree is to host an exhibition of personal photographic work by the Inishowen-based photographer Harry Kerr who died last year.

The Married Life of Atoms is curated by Kerr’s life partner and work partner Martha McCulloch. 

The exhibition is not a comprehensive survey of his previously exhibited projects, but rather a snapshot of Harry Kerr as an artist. 

The photographs in the exhibition are linked by a variety of Harry’s interests and concerns. These include, but are not limited to, meaning/interpretation, landscape, space, time, location, communication, the snapshot, the beauty of the photograph. These concerns are articulated through images of subjects as diverse as the American and Irish Landscape, archaeological artefacts, portraiture and performance documentation. 

The exhibition will include proposals for works that were never realised or only partially realised. This includes a proposal for an installation of slides, illuminated by electronic flash triggered by motion sensors. This is inspired by the images of the apocalypse invoked in the book of revelations and the Bhagavad Gita as quoted by Robert J Oppenheimer. The work was intended to reference both the nature of the photographic exposure and the analogies and images referred to by Oppenheimer as he witnessed the flash of the first atomic detonation.

Harry Kerr was born in the West of Scotland in 1960. He was educated at Glasgow School of Art, specialising in photography, in the first instance in the Design School. He gained an honours degree in Graphic Design and Photography. But Harry’s interests were always in the area of photography as a fine art medium so it was a happy coincidence that, during his time in the Graphics Department, Thomas Joshua Cooper, an American photographer with a vision for an entirely new kind of photography course, arrived on the scene and became a significant mentor. 

Shortly after graduating, he was selected as the first year-long artist-in-residence at Summerlee Heritage Trust, a large industrial museum in his home town of Coatbridge. He later became the design and interpretation officer at the museum. 

Harry became the first recipient of Scotland’s chief lens-based media prize, the Richard Hough Bursary. This award was for a project called Sense and Science which was exhibited in several venues in Scotland and England.

From 1993 until 2000 he was a technical instructor in the Fine Art Photography Department at the prestigious Glasgow School of Art. Harry moved to Donegal with Martha over 20 years ago with the intention of establishing a commercial photography business, while continuing to pursue their own personal art and photography projects.

He was involved with Artlink, teaching photography workshops in the early 2000s and in more recent years designed the organisation's website, produced videos, supported artists in installing exhibitions, designed promotional material, and documented events, approaching this work with his particular flair and commitment to quality.

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He also worked on various other projects, both personal and professional, including helping create the poignant Laurentic memorial at Fort Dunree and producing several short documentary films including the beautiful Two Birds Sang, a portrait of Ros Harvey and Tim Stampton. 

Artlink and Street Level Photoworks have invited a group of respected photographers to give presentations in a photography symposium prompted by Harry’s work. The photographers taking part are: Calum Angus MacKay, Amanda McKittrick, Anthony Haughey, Christina McBride, Peter Finnemore and Paul McGuckin. 

Harry Kerr Memorial Bursary

The Harry Kerr Memorial Bursary will continue his legacy by supporting emerging artist photographers and documentary filmmakers in the early stages of their career.  Harry was a producer and supporter of emerging photographers and filmmakers and new voices. This bursary, worth €3,000, will give an opportunity to its recipient to undertake a significant body of work that will be a springboard for their future. The bursary is specifically aimed at those from a socio-economically deprived background when early investment could have life-changing consequences.

The Married Life of Atoms: Harry Kerr opens on Saturday, December 2 from 6 pm to 8pm. The photography symposium in collaboration with Street Level Photoworks takes place on Sunday, December 3 from 12pm to 4pm.