Gillian Hyland | Words in Sight Launch

Renowned photographer Gillian Hyland presents Words in Sight at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith in a solo show presented by Barbara Stanley from Friday 29 September until Friday 3 November 2017, alongside the launch of a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new book of the same title on which took place on Monday 18 September.

The photographs are part of the ongoing project ‘Words in Sight’, which is a narrative photography series that has been inspired by poetry written by the artist over the past decade. The poems portray raw feelings from personal experiences. Each poem encapsulates memories and emotions in words and is then transformed into images, which offer a new perspective on past events.

Hyland’s mesmerizing and supernatural staged images are presented as film stills or dramatic moments from around the world. Hyland’s unsettling mise-en-scène are full of sex and desire, sadness and nostalgia. Narratives that are psychologically evocative - at once sublimely theatrical yet poignant. Frozen in time, solitary and vulnerable moments are presented in glorious technicolor and timeless sets. Hyland describes herself as an image maker and story teller. Her dramatic photographs are based on her own poems, and depict characters in human dramas and isolated emotional situations.

In 2016 the artist travelled to Cuba for a series of images that have proven amongst her most popular. Her work The Road Less Travelled won the Sony Portrait Prize for Ireland. Hyland says of Cuba, “Cuba is so evocative, it is like being in the 1950’s, there is an extraordinary aesthetic there. The mix and the diversity of people is very inspiring, my eyes were constantly drawn to everything around me. It is so unpredictable and striking. The first few days I devoured the streets totally entranced by the chaotic range of buildings, the varied styles all sitting next to each other, and the faded grandeur of a city once soaked in money and glamour. The vibrancy of the people oozes out of them in every sense, from the way they walk, dance, talk and laugh, they enjoy life and live in the moment.”

Capturing her memories and emotions in words she then transforms these into images, offering new perspectives. Composing the shot is a lengthy process. Setting up a shot can take up to three weeks of preparation. Choosing characters, Hyland looks for people who can give something of themselves.

Hyland adds, “I want the viewer to look at my image and see themselves. The use of sets and costumes is part of creating a story that we can all identify with, a past of which we can just recall parts. It’s not about creating a pretty picture, for me it’s the intention that lies beneath it that is truly worthwhile. I’m drawn to the thinking mind behind the face, the subject’s eyes holding a story in their gaze, that is what I aim to capture through my photographs.”

The imagery plays with notions of nostalgia, and taps into society’s cultural understanding of feelings and beliefs. The composition of each image suggests a larger narrative within a single moment. The photograph explores Hyland’s sense of self and society and aims to engage and trigger an emotional response from the viewer.

Hyland’s visual career began as a stylist and set designer. Highly successful, the move to photography was a natural progression in wanting to create her own imagery. Acclaimed for her use of colour and settings, Hyland has used the same title for this body of work since its inception in 2014 and is now bringing her highly regarded pieces together in a covetable hardcover format.

Born in Dublin in 1982 artist and photographer Gillian Hyland lives and works in London. Hyland personally composes every aspect of her pictures, a skill gained from fourteen years in the visual arts industry, as a stylist, art director and set designer. This diverse background helped her realise and develop an a