About me
My name is Michael McIlvaney.
My photography is an expression of my curiosity for people and the places they inhabit. I have always been interested in human behaviour and the notion of “society". My candid public photography draws inspiration from these themes. In particular, my work focuses on the relationships between people and the political, social, and economic environments in which they live.
When not working to a project my work is generally unplanned, always candid and in public. All images derive from single shots. I delight in capturing the spontaneous events and serendipitous occurrences that unfold before the camera’s lens, transforming otherwise mundane scenes into moments of theatre. I search for those fleeting movements, flashes of colour, gestures and glances, and moments of connection in the urban flow, and I search for that invisible string that threads its way through the elements of a scene, connecting them together.
I’m captivated by the city; the place where the public and private spheres jostle and by those micro moments when the emotional guard slips. I seek out the dancing light and deeply dark shadows which offer to dramatise the “performers” in any given scene.
I feel at home in the flow of the streets, amongst the bubbling, yet to happen, encounters. In collaboration with luck, described by Agee as one of the “cardinal creative forces at work in the universe”, I strive to transform the actual, and mundane, into a new, sometimes conceptually different, kind of aesthetic reality.
Only recently have I opened up my ‘street’ work to public view.
I hope you enjoy some of the images you find here.
Features/Articles/Awards
Features/Press
BBC
The Guardian
LensCulture
Articles
LensCulture - The Theater of The Street by Gina Williams https://www.lensculture.com/articles/michael-mcilvaney-the-theater-of-the-street
Musee Magazine - Michael McIlvaney’s Subordinate : So Near So Alone https://museemagazine.com/features/2020/10/7/michael-mcilvaney
Edge of Humanity Magazine - Urban Heat https://edgeofhumanity.com/2020/06/26/urban-heat
Awards
Lensculture, Street Photography 2021 - Series Winner
Lensculture, Street Photography Editors’ Picks - 2019, 2021.
British Photography Awards - Finalist, Street Category 2021