Donovan Wylie

Donovan Wylie (born 1971) is a Northern Irish photographer, based in Belfast. His work chronicles what he calls "the concept of vision as power in the architecture of contemporary conflict" – prison, army watchtowers and outposts, and listening stations – "merging documentary and art photography". He started photography in his teens while a pupil at Belfast Royal Academy, and at the age of 16 he left school and went on a three-month journey around Ireland. These travels resulted in his first book, 32 Counties, published when he was 18. An exhibition of the work opened there in June 2017 alongside work by Jim Goldberg.

In 2018/2019, as a response to Brexit, he travelled around the British Isles, photographing lighthouses from neighbouring coastlines.

Publications Publications by Wylie 32 Counties: Photographs of Ireland. London: Secker & Warburg, 1989. . London: Secker & Warburg, 1990. . The Dispossessed. UK: Picador, 1990. With Robert McLiam Wilson Populations in Danger. UK: J. Libbey, 1992. Ireland: Singular Images. London: André Deutsch, 1994. . Notes from Moscow Transatlantic, 1994. . UK: Picador, 2004. Losing Ground. Fourth Estate, 1998. . With an afterword by Andrew O'Hagan. The Maze. London: Granta, 2004. . Göttingen: Steidl, 2010. . British Watchtowers. Göttingen: Steidl, 2007. . Scrapbook. Göttingen: Steidl, 2009. . With Timothy Prus. Outposts: Kandahar Province. Göttingen: Steidl, 2011. . With an afterword by Gerry Badger. North Warning System. Göttingen: Steidl, 2014. .

Publications paired with others A Good and Spacious Land. New Haven, CT: Yale, 2017. . A two-volume set with Jim Goldberg's Candy. With an introduction by Pamela Franks and essays by Christopher Klatell and Laura Wexler.

Films The Train (Witness, episode 25) (2001), written, directed and with cinematography by Wylie – Channel 4/October Films, 50 minutes, produced by Liana Pomerantsev, Russian with English subtitles. YoYo (2002) – Channel 4/October Films. Jesus Comes To London (2003) – Channel 4/October Films. The 12th (season 1, episode 3) (2003), directed by Wylie – 10 minutes, produced by Fulcrum Waddell Media.

Solo exhibitions The Maze, The Photographers' Gallery, London, 2004. Outposts, National Science and Media Museum, Bradford, 2011; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 2012. Vision as Power, Imperial War Museum, London, 2013.

Awards 2002: Winner, "New Director – Factual", British Academy Television Craft Awards, British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), for The Train. 2002: Royal Photographic Society Vic Odden Award, Bath, UK. 2009: Shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010. 2010: Bradford Fellowship 2010/11 from Bradford College, University of Bradford and National Science and Media Museum, UK to make Outposts.

Collections Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City: complete 80-picture edition of The Maze. Tate Modern, London: 5 prints from "British Watchtowers". Victoria and Albert Museum, London: 6 prints Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI: 3 items Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario: 4 prints Science Museum Group, UK: complete set of 42 prints from Losing Ground Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris: 6 prints Ulster Museum, Belfast