OFF Programme: Exhibitions

About the project

Unreal City is a collection of staged narrative-driven photographs by Basil Al-Rawi and Dejan Karin. Both photographers are concerned with exploring the territory between photography and cinema and this collection of images is informed primarily by a desire to evoke the cinematic. These images represent a glimpse into the lives of a cast of characters freeze-framed mostly in mid-action, arrested by occurrences beyond the frame. They are solitary subjects who occupy a familiar world of private spaces and fleeting moments, paused in reflection, trapped within their milieu. Each image portrays a moment within a much wider narrative timeline, designed to provoke a subconscious familiarity. Although the events of the previous and succeeding frames are unknown, the body language, expressions, props and setting point to a multitude of narratives that can be constructed by the viewer. Both photographers take a different approach to how these tableaux are constructed yet there is thematic commonality and a shared sensibility, which can be found in their work. This is the first public exhibition of works from Unreal City.

About the Photographers

BASIL AL-RAWI
A graduate of the National Film School, Basil Al-Rawi is a cinematographer, photographer and educator based in Dublin. His current photographic work is heavily informed by the cinematic and focuses on the creation of single image narratives influenced by factual and fictitious events.
www.basilalrawi.com

DEJAN KARIN
After completing a degree in Computer Design at Institute of Technology in Zagreb Dejan moved to Dublin where he took a three-year course in Photography and a one-year course in Film. He is currently teaching photography at the New Media Technology College, Dublin.
Lives and works in Dublin, Ireland.
www.dejankarin.com