Dexter McLean (born 1993, Kingston, Jamaica) moved to the United Kingdom when he was nine. Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy as a child, McLean’s documentary and portrait photography is concerned with addressing fundamental flaws in the representations of the disabled community in mainstream media and elsewhere.
In 2021 he self-published his first monograph Tower Avenue revisiting the community around Olympic Gardens, Jamaica where he spent his childhood. Inspired by a sense of togetherness and the importance of familial networks, this ongoing project features black and white photographic portraits of intergenerational constituency of individuals living in the local area. His long-term ambition is to create a collective portrait documenting the disabled community in Jamaica.
McLean was the first person in his family to attend university, graduating with a Masters degree in Photography from Middlesex University in 2020. His work was shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery 2016. McLean is currently part of the Shape Arts Transforming Leadership Programme in partnership with Autograph. He lives and works in London.
You can follow the artist on Instagram and see more work on his website.
Image captions: Works from Dexter McLean's commission Untitled, 2020, Archival giclée prints, each 12 x 16 inches. © and courtesy the artist. Commissioned by Autograph for for Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other: 1) Kamahl [detail], 2020. 2) Kinsley, 2020. 3) Kymarley, 2020. 4) Keenan, 2020. 5) Danielle, 2020. 6) Tyrone, 2020. 7) Michelle, 2020. 8) Kamahl, 2020.
Other page images: 9) Dexter McLean. Photograph by William Gillingham-Sutton.
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