British artist (born 1965)
Paul Seawright (born 1965) is a Northern Irish artist. He is the professor of photography and the Deputy Vice Chancellor (previously Executive Dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Belfast School of Art) at Ulster University in Belfast/Derry/Coleraine. Seawright lives in his birthplace of Belfast.
Life and work.
Seawright gained an art foundation at Ulster University, Belfast; a BA (Hons) 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" (more than two thirds of deaths between 1969 and the ceasefires of 1994 were civilian). 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 ("Invisible Cities") 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. His Afghanistan work is included in the Imperial War Museums extensive exhibition of art and conflict, Visions of War: Art of the Imperial War Museums, which opened in November 2023. 
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 (in 2021), professor of photography at Belfast School of Art at Ulster University in Belfast. From 2012 he was head of Belfast School of Art and from 2016 Executive Dean of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences. He was appointed Deputy Vice Chancellor of Ulster University in 2021.He served as a Council member of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Vice President of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts.
Seawright was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to higher education and the arts.
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