A PERSONAL STATEMENT

Before gallery representation and public exhibition of my work complicates the process, I've made the decision to offer my fine art work direct, it is time it be seen, shared and put out into the world.

Commercial photography has been and continues to be both challenging and rewarding, but I needed to do something more personally and artistically gratifying, more of the time. Three years ago I committed to the process of fine art photography and have been creating a body of work, on a theme.

My subject reflects my own family and heritage to a degree - celebrating the last peoples who live indigenously, honour a strong relationship with the earth, possess spiritual strength and adhere to their ancient way of life.

I’ve completed two major expeditions: Ethiopia and Mongolia, with a third at the planning stage. Each involves tremendous planning. Getting into remote locations, working through political issues, language barriers and in temperature extremes, is not an easy undertaking, for equipment - or creating nuanced imagery. These are definitely the most challenging images I have ever created, they are also the most satisfying.

Visual elements such as: location, composition, the subjects and their distinctive dress are all carefully considered and assembled - but not altered from reality in any way. The work is honest, but the visual style isn't meant to be purely documentary, rather, it is an elevated interpretation. These subjects are iconic, they themselves are art, stylized by my eye, aesthetic judgement and finishing style-only.

The resulting large format images finished & printed by me, using archival pigment inks, are available in three sizes restricted to small editions of 7 / 5 / 3. in sizes 20" x 30", 30" x40" and 42" x 56"

The catalogue can be seen at http://dermotcleary.com/PERSONAL-WORK/FINE-ART-PRINTS/thumbs

Password is FAprive16

Please feel free to contact me directly if you'd like pricing information. dermot@dermotcleary.com 416-274-4469

I hope that you will find these images as interesting as I did making them

- DC