The Whited Sepulchre
Ronan McCall
The Whited Sepulchre takes the form of personal diary reconstructed. Images from various parts of the world are amalgamated based on an imagined inner dual narrative so that my personal experiences and motivations are re-imagined through the creation of a cinematic version of the present that could be from any time – that is governed by an overall sensation more than a geographical or temporal framework, that attempts to visually respond to the shape of trauma. Constantly on the verge of revelation but being drawn back to try to understand experiences that were beyond our comprehension. People born into families of intergenerational trauma are themselves often forced to live in a submerged world that runs parallel to other people’s reality. Their real selves become something to be hidden at all costs. Even when presented with evidence to the contrary they cannot accept themselves as having any value. Ireland has been cast under the spell of a fiction invented to mask hundreds of years of deep cultural wounds. The Whited Sepulchre takes a close look at this Irish fiction of self.
Ronan McCall is an Irish photographer from Dublin. He currently lives on Inis Oírr on the Aran Islands. From there, he is remotely working on multiple photography projects, where he engages with the photographic and print processes in their entirely with a home-built colour and black & white darkroom. He has undertaken several documentary projects, one of which received an award from his BA in Dublin. Previous to this he won the internationally recognized British Design and Advertising Award in 2007 – both in student of the year and overall photography categories. He owned and curated his own gallery in Dublin, Severed Head, for several years showing international artists such Esther Teichmann, Noemi Goudal and Dallas Seitz. In 2013 he moved to New York and pursued a successful career in fashion advertising as a lighting specialist. His clients include brands like Dior, Louis Vuitton, Off White, Dazed, Another magazine, Fendi, Self Service magazine, Marni, Balenciaga, The New Yorker, Stella McCartney, Wall Street Journal, New York Times.