Mary McIntyre was born in Northern Ireland where she lives and works. She graduated Master of Fine Art in 1990 at the at the University of Ulster at Belfast where she is a Reader in Fine Art.
Mary McIntyre’s photographs often present spaces and places that have been forgotten and overlooked. The atmosphere of each location resonates from the image. With this in mind she depicts the transformation that occurs to these locations at specific times of day, when for a fleeting moment, the play of light can transform the mundane, urban environment. When photographed at night and artificially lit, these spaces begin to take on a cinematic quality, imbuing them with a heightened psychological charge.
McIntyre’s landscape images do not seek to represent traditional rural idylls, instead they depict vistas that are in themselves constructed and man-made so that each scene is interrupted with evidence of urban activity. Interested in the photograph’s object quality, McIntyre uses installation as a means of activating the spaces that her photographs inhabit and in doing so makes the viewer aware of the act of ‘looking’.
Text and images © Mary McIntyre
