Katie McCraw is a documentary photographer and visual storyteller who is fascinated by people’s multiple identities and circular narratives of time.
Katie is learning to embrace the uncertainty of life: having lived cross-culturally for ten years, her world-views have been challenged and turned upside down. Photography, for Katie, is a personal journey, a cathartic way in which she can process the complexities of life. She combines alternative processes and archival material to address buried histories and the hallucinatory nature of reality. Her practice encourages the deconstruction of societal norms, identity, and expectations we have of ourselves. Katie’s work aims to ask more questions than provide answers - exploring and accepting the unknown. Her ambition is for her images to help people feel less alone and to recognise that we are all partakers in the madness and confusion of this world.
Originally from the UK, Katie lived in Bosnia & Herzegovina for over ten years where she has used photography as a reconciliatory tool and a therapeutic tool with the various NGOs she worked for. With a grounding in humanities, she decided to further her academic studies and photographic practice by completing an MA in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at the University of the Arts London in 2021 (with distinction). She currently works as the Photo Editor for OCCRP, a global investigative journalism organisation.
Exhibitions:
Sarajevo Photography Festival 2023
See Change: Look Photo Biennial 2022, Wigan & Leigh, December 2022-February 2023
Sarajevo Photography Festival, May-August 2022
Visual Noise, London, April 2022 - Sheila
Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, February 2022 - Life is Elsewhere, as part of Ways of Living, a collaborative archive by Then There Was Us.
University of the Arts London Graduate Showcase, November 2021
United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Vienna (online), April 2021 - My Life in Recovery, collaborative Photovoice project.
Awards:
Sarajevo Photography Festival - Finalist 2023
Belfast Photography Festival - Shortlisted 2023
Sarajevo Photography Festival - 2nd place mobile phone category & overall finalist 2022
Rebecca Vassie Trust - Longlisted 2022
Art and Reconciliation: the History and Practice of Foto Depo: the Photographic Archive of the History Museum of Bosnia and Hercegovina - Finalist 2022
Rotterdam Photo - Shortlisted 2022 for Silent as a Stone
Photograd - Highly Commended 2021 for Sheila
Photoworks Photography+ - Longlisted 2021 for Sheila
Features & Commissions
Hyphen Magazine - A Month of Iftars in London
Hyphen Magazine - Rediscovering Islam in Sarajevo
Artful Memories - book by Jane Chipp - Sheila
Darklight Art - Sheila
Aesthetica Next Generation - Sheila
Balkanium - People of Mostar
Photograd - Interview & Feature about Sheila
