About
Louis McCullagh is a fine art and documentary photographer and film-maker based in Belfast, UK. He has worked in the computing and printing industries, latterly in photography and film, and has won awards nationally and internationally for his photographs and films. His main photography awards came from the British Institute of Professional Photography, and his films have been selected by many Academy Award-nominating film festivals. Louis has had several large solo exhibitions of his work “The Northern Family” as well as smaller solo exhibitions around Belfast. His work and techniques were published internationally in “Inspirational Black and White Images”. His films have been screened around the world, from Australia to Chile to the USA, and on TV.
Biography
Louis started photography at 10 years old when his father gave him an old 120 roll-film camera. His films were developed in exchange for various odd jobs around the family home.
Later, with a young family, he focused more on video than stills, but a solo photographic tour of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco rekindled his enthusiasm for photography and he joined a local camera club. Within a year his set of 15 images won a Distinction from the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (one of only three awarded that year).
In 2006 he turned professional and won first place in the BIPP NI Photographer of the Year, plus four other awards for individual images. The following year he won the coveted Peter Grugeon Award at the UK Professional Photographers’ Annual Awards, his panel of 20 Fine Art images beating nominees from the UK, Ireland and around the world in the fields of Portraiture, Commercial, Advertising, Public Relations, Science and Wedding Photography. The next year he set a new UK record, winning 13 awards for images at the British Professional Photography Awards in recognition of “Outstanding Achievement for Originality and Technical Excellence”.
“Louis’s award-winning images show a sensitivity that is rarely seen around Europe. The quality of lighting, and posing with creativity, is second to none. He sees photographs before they happen and that is the mark of a rare talent.” — Ray Lowe FBIPP FMPA FRPS (President)
Louis has been selected for the annual exhibitions of the prestigious Royal Ulster Academy of Arts, Belfast.
His first solo exhibition, “The Northern Family I”, was Northern Ireland’s largest ever outdoor exhibition (30 giant photographs) at the King’s Hall Complex in Belfast. The photographs of the farming community were taken over a period of two years. The exhibition was hosted and supported by the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society together with Arts & Business Northern Ireland.
His second major exhibition, “The Northern Family II”, was at the Linen Hall Library in central Belfast. The images were about school days and childhood, and were staged throughout all the floors of the building. The photography was initially over an intense six-week period and continued for a further seven years. This is possibly the most in-depth project about a school ever undertaken. The many thousands of photographs record the daily activities of the staff and children (from the nursery section through to the final year) but also the atmosphere and emotions of school life and indeed childhood itself.
Backstage – The Movie. Louis took more than 1,700 of those school images and created a 75-minute movie which followed the school day, with brief interruptions for the school’s annual fair, sports day, school trips and end-of-year musical. The film’s 28 sections include sounds, interviews and music from the school. The teachers are the unsung heroes.
Following the sold-out premiere of Backstage, which was attended by NI Screen, Louis was invited to join a film training course with the possibility of making a film.
Louis’s first short film, The Morning News (written and directed by him), won several international awards, including an award presented in Sydney by the Minister of Arts. The Morning News dealt with the love of an elderly man for his wife at the end of her life. The soundtrack was most generously provided by BBC News.
His next drama, Call Me Son, written and directed by Louis, again won awards and was broadcast on Irish national TV. It was produced by his company My Neighbour Films and portrayed the life of a young boy in foster care who is continually being moved from foster home to foster home. The Sugababes very kindly authorised their song “Ugly” to be used in the film. Irish singer-songwriter Juliet Turner recorded a song specially for the film.
His third drama, StandUp, was also produced by My Neighbour Films. Again written and directed by Louis, it also won international awards. It was his most ambitious film, with a cast and crew of nearly 50. The film dealt with the aftermath of suicide and how its contagion can infect and destroy a family. The soundtrack is a stand-up comedy performance by the son.
“Truly remarkable, hard to take but in the end something magnificent” — Darryl MacDonald, CEO, Palm Springs Film Festival