McAllister
Frankie McAllister - Bio
I am a northern Irish photographer, based in London and I have recently published my first book (Dividing Lines) about the impact of the Northern Irish protocol on the borderlands of Ireland, using the landscape as metaphor. I am currently developing further book projects that have arisen from this work. The book is for sale on this website and through The Photographer's Gallery and The Photomuseum of Ireland. I'm also a founder member of FIKA book & zine, a new photography book collective (more on this to follow) and I have exhibited both nationally and internationally.
But what it's really all about: a sense of the outsider looking in, ‘outsiderness’. It permeates all my work, pretty much whatever the subject. It’s not judgmental - there is connection and empathy but it comes from a place (unchosen) outside, observing, intuiting, noticing and, often literally, sympathizing. I put it down to a peripatetic childhood, arriving too often in new places, the new girl in school. You assess your new circumstances, the groupings and connections between your new friends and you learn very quickly to adapt, like a chameleon.
You adopt the customs and mannerisms of others in order to fit in but of course you never really do, it’s in appearance only, you’re still on the outside still watching, so intent on working out how you should appear, that you forget who you are. Like the background to my early years, my images change in subject – there's an inherent assumption of change, from place to place, school to school. In photography, I switch regularly between landscape and incidental, to still life and abstract, and back again. To me, they are really no different - in all there is the same underlying current, I’m still looking for the same thing, the same mood, the same feeling. It’s rarely people, because as an outsider I would feel intrusive. I am not one of them, I am almost a ghost or a cipher.
Publications and Online Galleries
Launch of a range of self published hand finished booklets
Silence & Light - trilogy by FIKA Book&Zine 2024
Dividing Lines - photobook by Frankie McAllister 2024
Nightmoves - Shutterhub Jan 2024
Interview 'Artists Tales' Podcast by Heather Martin, Christmas Day 2023
Shutterhub Year Book 2023
fLIP Magazine April 2023 - Book review
fLIP Magazine December 2022 - Book review & image
Geographies of Print/ Territories of Practice October 2022
Shutterhub Book 'On the Road' July 2022
Interview 'Culturamas' online arts magazine April 2022
Cover Image RPS Women In Photo 'WE ARE' March 2022
fLIP Magazine December 2021 - feature article on 'UNLOCKED' exhibition
fLIP Magazine March 2021 - Barriers (image)
Rankin's 2020 - image published
fLIP Magazine December 2020 – Solitary (Feature: Ethics in Travel Photography)
fLIP Magazine December 2020 – Solitary (cover)
fLIP Magazine, August 2020 – Abstracts/Wonder
AOP Magazine - lockdown feature
Members Feature Interview and images RPS Women In Photo, March 2020
fLIP Magazine, Dec 2019 – feature "Pilgrimage as an Act of Resistance”
Vogue Italia Photographer Gallery 2020
Aesthetica Magazine Summer edition listing “Manipulated Landscapes” 2019
fLIP Magazine, Dec 2018 – feature “Lives Interrupted”
Exhibitions and Awards
Shutterhub Cambridge 2025
Subjective:Objective, Espacio Gallery January 2025
Hackney Gallery - Intersectional Grammar Trees 2024
Salon 24 for Photofusion Brixton May 24 to June 24
Chromatic Awards 2024
TerraVarna - double finalist Abstract category 2024
To The Sea October 24 ongoing Worthing Beach
To The Sea October 23 to October 24 St Gilles de Croix France for Shutterhub
"Construction - Disclosure" - 35th Annual LIP exhibition at Espacio Gallery
Photobook Cafe Gallery - Solo show and book launch for 'Dividing Lines'
Shutterhub Night Moods Dec 23 to Jan 24
Quadruple honourable mentions 2023 Chromatic Awards
Shortlisted for the International Photography Awards September 2023
Shortlisted for IPE165 - September 2023
Royal Academy Summer show June to August 2023
Attention:Vitality, Espacio Gallery Jan 2023
Salon 22 - Photofusion exhibition - December 2022 to February 2023
ND Awards November 2022 - fine art/abstract
Chromatic Awards November 2022
IPA Honourable Mention special category - September 2022
IPE64 Shortlist September 2022
LIP Chronicles, Online exhibition and newspaper November 2021
'Strange Familiars' Espacio Gallery - October 2021
'UNLOCKED' Public art installation Ealing Town Centre September 2021
'Respair' Waterloo Festival, St John's Church Waterloo June 2021
16th Julia Margaret Camera Awards Honourable Mention 2021
Shutterhub Postcards from Europe exhibition 2021
ND Awards 2020 – Honourable mention
Chromatic Awards 2020- Honourable mention
London Independent Photography Covid Chronicles Online exhibition Nov 2020
Aesthetica Magazine/Printswap, Exhibition Foley Gallery New York
Festival Pil'Ours, Shutterhub, St Gilles Croix de Vie
RPS Print Exhibition, Lauderdale House, Feb 2020
Chromatic Awards – Bronze 2019
ND Awards 2019 – Honourable mention
British Photography Awards shortlist 2020
Salon 19, Photofusion 2019
'Everyday Delight' - Free Space Project for Shutterhub, 2019
International Photography Awards, honourable mention 2019
London Independent Photography 31st Annual Show, 2019
'Home' Ealing BEAT, the Rickyard, 2019
‘Art on a Postcard’ Artists Charity auction, Spitalfields
'Home' Gallery at Home, Monmouthshire, 2019
'Time to Think, Festival Pil'ours, St Gilles Croix de Vie, France 2019
'Thought Atlas, Espacio Gallery, 2019
'Street/Form' POW!WOW!, Rotterdam, 2019
'Factual Enigma', CLIP, Espacio Gallery 2019,
RPS Print Exhibition, Lauderdale House, 2019
Shutterhub Open, 5&33 Gallery, Amsterdam, 2019