BIO

I'm a visual artist, photographer, filmmaker, writer and lecturer, currently based in South Africa. I'm motivated to produce work that blends storytelling elements from my documentary photojournalist background with an abstract artistic nature that seeks to explore the unconscious. 

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I have worked as freelance photojournalist in Tbilisi, Georgia where I covered stories in the greater Caucuses region and in several post-Soviet states, including Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

 

I was awarded a Chevening Scholarship and hold a MA in Photography: The Image & The Electronic Arts with distinction from Goldsmiths, University of London. Here I learned to extend my photography practice into the spheres of filmmaking, animation, analogue photography, portraiture and mixed media art. 

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My photographs have been published in BBC News, VICE, GQ, Men’s Health, OZY and Huck Magazine, as well as in media outlets in Italy, the Netherlands, China, Portugal and Russia.

 

My photographic projects have been exhibited at the Somerset House Gallery in London and Casa Saraceni Gallery in Bologna, Italy as part of the Syngenta Photography Award. My work has also been shown in galleries in Rome, Dubai, Oxford, Cape Town, Kathmandu, Odessa, Suwon, Stellenbosch and Tbilisi.

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I have worked for the United Nations Development Programme Ukraine – covering conflict-affected communities in the eastern Ukraine – and for a variety of NGOs in South Africa, Madagascar, Swaziland, India, Georgia and Ukraine, including UNDP Georgia, Operation Smile and Save the Children.

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I've produced several acclaimed short films, music videos, a television commercial and a photobook..

 

My personal work is largely driven by analogue techniques of image-making, including 19th century printing methods, hand-drawn animation and film photography.

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I'm especially interested in the analogue photographic process and alternative printing methods as a means of disrupting the passive manner of consuming digital imagery. 

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If you'd like to get in touch for commissions, assignments or collaborations, you're in luck because I have been saving all my best photographs for you.

 

Email me at ianmcnaughtd@gmail.com and let's work together.

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