Ken Finnegan is a Fine Art photographer. He holds a BA from the West Wales School of The Arts, University of Glamorgan and an MFA in Photography in from The University of Ulster. He is based in the North East of Ireland and exhibits widely.
“All professions are difficult at present, including photography but if you have a passion for photography/art pursue it fervently. In my life it started as a hobby and is still a hobby from which I make my living. I consider myself very lucky, every morning I get up to a ‘job’ which is my hobby. Education is paramount, never stop learning and never think you are too old to learn.”
Ken was born was born in 1959 and his love of photography started while working in Dublin. In 1985, he joined the Drogheda Independent newspaper group as staff photographer and within a few years, he had started his own company where he gained experience in a wide variety of photographic fields. 2005 saw him enter a phase when he became an educator in photography at O’Fiaich Institute of Further Education. He is currently course co-ordinator for the FETAC Level 5 and 6 Photographic Studies courses. This changed the focus of his practice to fine art after successfully completing a BA (Hons) in Photography at the West Wales School of the Arts, University of Glamorgan.
He also gained an MFA in Photography from The University of Ulster, Belfast in January 2012 where he studied under Professor Paul Seawright, Donovan Wylie, Professor Terence Wright and Dr. Alastair Herron.
We asked Ken about the works in the collection of Louth County Council and about his current practice:
The two pieces Courthouse and Rapeseed Fields were commissions by Louth County Council and were to reflect the North and Mid-Louth environment. They not only reflect the environment in which they were made but my love of this small County in which I live and make my living from.
My fine art photographic practice deals with the creation of the ‘social history of now’. The images deal with issues that are valid worldwide but are made on a local level, from a local perspective but no less important. Relational aesthetics could be viewed as an overall term to describe my practice. “Open-ended art practices, concerned with the network of human relations and the social context in which such relations arise” (Nicolas Bourriaud). The images are regarded as an exchange of information and perspectives between artist and viewer and rely on the responses of others to make it relational.
Find out more about this artist here: www.newspics.ie
