(b.1980, England) graduated with a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of Business, Pennsylvania. As a self-taught photographer, his work examines the aesthetics of the urban and natural environment. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at Lumiere Gallery and Silverlens Gallery. He has participated in group shows in the Philippines and he is currently based in Manila.

Curator’s note:

Frankie Callaghan facilitates his practice through silent wanderings of his immediate environment. Working from dusk till dawn, Callaghan intuitively seeks meaningful subjects in the urban and rural context. Alone, he aimlessly roams the streets searching for something intangible, the sublime in the everyday. As such, encountering his subject by chance is an important part of his process and the excitement of discovery fuels the surreal magic Callaghan brings to his work. This effect is closely linked to his personal responses of fear and wonder, of being in unfamiliar places in the dark of night. In this way, it is an exercise of connecting with the unknown, to divine ones’ journey through unchartered territory to become a type of visual meditation. Selected for their formal appeal and the available light sources around them, what results are heightened sites of pleasure and tension, comparable to scenes from a fairytale.

Impossibly beautiful, these images give importance to the forgotten and ignored aspects of the everyday landscape. However, despite the highly saturated colour and eerie light sources, the artist uses only the most minimal amount of processing. Through long exposures he amplifies the available light in very dark places but keeps the original colours and shadows.