Harry Kerr Symposium - The Married Life of Atoms
Artlink, Co. Donegal, Ireland
12 - 4pm Sunday 3rd December 

Artlink and Street Level Photoworks have invited a group of respected photographers to give presentations prompted by the work of Harry Kerr (1960 - 2022). They have all connected in different ways with Harry, a few in recent years when taking part in Artlink’s residency and exchange programmes and others going back to the formative years in the Fine Art Photography Department at Glasgow School of Art.

This symposium extends Artlink’s exchange/collaboration with Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, developing the residency model to also involve knowledge exchange.

The symposium includes contributions from Lewis based photographer Calum Angus MacKay, Peter Finnemore (Llanelli, County Dyfed, Wales), Amanda McKittrick (Bangor, Northern Ireland), Anthony Haughey (Dublin), Christina McBride (Glasgow), Paul McGuckin (West of Ireland) and Frank McElhinney (Glasgow).

The symposium coincides with The Married Life of Atoms’, an exhibition of personal photographic work by the late Harry Kerr, curated by his life partner and work partner Martha McCulloch. It is an exhibition of personal photographic work, a snapshot of his concerns as an artist, with photography projects linked by a variety of Harry’s interests and concerns, much of his work is a preoccupation with indeterminacy.

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.

About the artist

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 (the only route to studying photography at that time). He gained an honours Degree in Graphic Design & 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 & Interpretation Officer at the museum. Subsequently, 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 & 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 twenty years ago with the intention of establishing a commercial photography business, while continuing to pursue their own personal art/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.

Images: © Harry Kerr, 'Shadowcatcher' from the series 'Sense and Science'; inset image, Harry Kerr on location in 1991, photograph © Martha McCulloch

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