Paul Seawright


Paul Seawright is a Northern Irish artist. He is the professor of photography and the Executive Dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Belfast School of Art at Ulster University in Belfast. Seawright lives in his birthplace of Belfast.

Life and work

Seawright gained an art foundation at Ulster University, Belfast; a BA in Photography, Film and Video from West Surrey College of Art and Design, where his tutors included Paul Graham and Martin Parr; and a PhD from the University of Wales.
He is best known for his early work from his home city of Belfast, particularly the series Sectarian Murder, 1988. In this series, he photographed the sites of sectarian murders around Belfast, and paired the images with newspaper reports from the period. By removing reference to the victim's religion, he depoliticised the violence, focusing on the extensive civilian losses in the Northern Irish "troubles". He was also the first editor of the Belfast-based photography magazine Source.
More recently, he has made photographs in post-war Afghanistan, urban Africa and America. In 2002, he travelled to Afghanistan, having been commissioned by the Imperial War Museum, London, to respond to the September 11 attacks and the subsequent war against the Taliban. His photographs of minefields and battle sites have been exhibited internationally and are in numerous public collections.
In 2005, the Fotomuseum Antwerp exhibited a major survey exhibition of his work with accompanying catalogue Field Notes.
Seawright was Dean of Newport School of Art, Media and Design at the University of Wales, Newport. Later he was, and remains, professor of photography at Belfast School of Art at Ulster University in Belfast. From 2012 he was head of Belfast School of Art and is currently Executive Dean of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences. He served as a Council member of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Vice President of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts.

Publications

Publications by Seawright