Exhibitions
2026
Beneath The Surface (MFA Photography co-operative exhibition) Belfast Photo Festival, Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland
I Belong (solo exhibition), Mental Health Arts NI Mindset Festival, Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland
2025
Beyond the Tide (solo exhibition), Ards Arts Centre, Newtownards, Northern Ireland
Seen/Unseen (pop-up solo exhibition), NI Group for Art as Therapy, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Half Time (co-operative exhibition), Arcade Studios, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Seen/Unseen (solo exhibition), Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland
2024
Beyond the Tide (solo exhibition), The John Luke Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Change Through the Lens (group exhibition), Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre, Northern Ireland
2023
We the Human: A Quiet Blue Wall (collaborative group exhibition), ONCA, Brighton, England
Grants/Awards
2024 & 2025
SANE Creative Award, SANE, London
2023
Support for Individual Artists Programme (emerging artist grant), Arts Council of Northern Ireland
Other
2026
Completing a Master of Fine Art in Photography at University of Ulster
2025
Member of Belfast Photo Factory Collective
Member of Socially Engaged Photography Network
Artist Talks:
Belfast Exposed’s Healing Through Photography – Trauma & the Art of Recovery Conference, the National Autistic Society, Outside In and Northern Ireland Group for Art as Therapy
2023
Associate Member of Visual Arts Ireland
Biography
David McKinney (born 1970, Ballymena, Northern Ireland) is a photographer whose work explores the relationship between mental states and the natural environment through eco-photographic and slow photography approaches.
Working with metaphorical imagery, his photographs portray psychological experience through ecology and landscape.
Since 2024, McKinney has presented the solo exhibitions Beyond the Tide, Seen/Unseen and I Belong, contributing to wider conversations around mental well-being, ecological awareness and therapeutic photography. He has received support from Belfast Exposed, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the SANE Creative Awards Scheme, London.
Artist Statement
My practice explores the interplay between mental health and ecological consciousness through the lens of slow photography in nature.
Drawing on eco-philosophy creates visual narratives that reflect emotional landscapes through embedded engagement with the more-than-human world.
Using experimental and intuitive photographic techniques, I develop abstracted and metaphorical representations of nature, weaving together lived experience with ecological observations. This approach aims to challenge anthropocentric narratives and reframe mental well-being within an ecological context.