Online Gallery

"I Take Care of Me" - Disability in Jamaica

New photography from Dexter McLean

As of 2011, 53% of disabled people in Jamaica didn’t have access to education compared with 3% of the non-disabled population.¹ Less than 1% of disabled people are employed.²

In September 2023, Autograph supported artist Dexter McLean in undertaking a research project in Kingston, Jamaica, where the artist was born and lived until he moved to the UK aged nine. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child, McLean draws on his lived experience to explore the treatment, social conditions, personal narratives, and representational politics of disability.

During the research trip, McLean visited two schools for disabled children and Cheshire Village, part of the Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre, which consists of 21 purpose-built accessible housing units. By spending time and building relationships, McLean was able to photograph and record conversations with individuals in these communities, including carers and support workers. Keep scrolling to hear their stories. Via the camera, McLean has begun to build a critical dialogue concerning attitudes towards disability in Jamaica and beyond.

Glenroy Joseph

Mauva Thompson

Hilary Sherlock

Dorothy Hamilton

Here it's a community. Someone is always passing-by, someone will hold a conversation with you. I can do things: I plant, I have a nice garden. I take care of me."

Mauva Thompson

Bernice Smith

Things are different now but back then [in 1972] I couldn't attend school - there were no vehicles and my parents didn't own a donkey. I'd never heard of a wheelchair at that point in my life. The school was far away and the roads were very rough so I couldn't do the journey in. But when my brothers and sisters came home from school, they'd give me the work they'd done that day. They taught me the basics, how to spell my name, the days of the week, simple words."

Bernice Smith

David Christie

I don't know my family - they abandoned me - I wasn't the kid they were looking for. There's stigma around disability in Jamaica - it's got a little better but people still don't get it. They call you names, tease you. I'm a big man now though so I understand people is people."

David Christie

Sylvia Grant

Seoul 1998 was my first Olympics. I got silver medals in javelin, discos and pentathlon. Paralympic champions don't get money or recognition. Not like Usain Bolt! I went to Mexico and I broke the world record there in javelin - when I came back, nothing."

Sylvia Grant

Kidd Gwendolyn

I was living in the ghetto. At 25 I got shot in the side by a stray bullet while 5 months pregnant. The baby was fine. […] I just love crocheting. I taught myself and started by doing likkle tings like chains but I learnt more tings along the way pretty fast. Then I started making hats in the red, gold, green and black for the Rastaman. They love them."

Kidd Gwendolyn

Jameli

Daniel

Dontae

Sian

Javaughn

Alianna

about the artist

Dexter McLean

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.

McLean was the first person in his family to attend university, graduating with a Masters degree in Photography from Middlesex University in 2020. In 2021 he self-published his first monograph Tower Avenue revisiting the community around Olympic Gardens, Jamaica where he spent his childhood.

You can follow the artist on Instagram and see more work on his website.

Part of the project

EXPLORERS

The national creative programme working towards changing the discourse of how neurodivergent artists are positioned and described in culture.

Find out more

Discover more

Portraits from Tower Avenue, Jamaica

View this online gallery of images by Dexter McLean, capturing members of the community around Olympic Gardens, Jamaica where McLean spent his childhood.

View image gallery

Acknowledgements

Dexter McLean's research commission was programmed as part of the EXPLORERS Project supported by Arts Council England and Paul Hamlyn Foundation. EXPLORERS is a national creative programme for increasing the visibility and representation of neurodivergent artists in contemporary visual art.

supported by

Banner image: Dexter McLean, Kidd Gwendolyn [detail], 2023. © and courtesy of the artist.

All images on page: © and courtesy Dexter McLean.

¹ Statistical Institute of Jamaica, 2011.
² World Bank, 2016.