Dee Barragry

Drawn to nature, nuance, and gesture, much of Barragry's work is generated within a state of empathic wandering. By attuning to the frequencies around her, she seeks dialogue through the poetry of place. Since 2019 Barragry has been exploring themes of ecopsychology and identity in the Irish Northwest through the medium of fine art photography. Nomadic at heart, a tension exists in Barragry's viewpoint between reverence for place, wistful curiosity about belonging, and a persistent desire to be free. As a person of restless sensibilities, Barragry is fascinated by deeply integrated, stable communities and how they come to be. Barragry both yearns for the solidity and familiarity of settledness and resists the commitment required of it. This ambivalence leads Barragry's inquiry.

The camera captures fleeting transient life interacting with slow matter, in deep, lucid imagery. Repeated immersion in the locale allows Barragry to detect rhythms in her surroundings that otherwise would not be apparent. Barragry revisits the heartland, attempting to uncover its identity layer by layer, using different conceptual approaches in each phase to examine this same source of intrigue.

Dee Barragry is a photographer, artist, and writer. A childhood spent between Ireland, Saudi Arabia and Mexico ignited an innate curiosity about origins, identity, and legacy. In 2021 and 2022 Barragry was awarded an Artist Support Bursary by Fingal Arts Office to undertake “Signals from the Heartland” and to research for “Threshold”, the third body of work within her interrelated site-specific fine art photography project exploring the uniqueness of the Irish Northwest. Her work has been shown in Ireland and the UK. Recent shows include “Made X NW” (The Dock, Leitrim, 2022) curated by Ruth Carroll, “Soul Noir” (Irish Architectural Archive, Dublin, 2023) curated by Sinéad Keogh, “Echoes of Ireland: Ireland through literature and lens” (Reds Gallery, Dublin, 2024) with ÍOVA Photography Collective, and “Ties that Bind” (126 Artist-run Gallery, Galway, 2025) curated by Emily Loham. She is a member of Richmond Road Studios, Photo Museum Ireland and Visual Artists Ireland.

Main image credit: 'The Water Jaguar' from body of work: 'Threshold' (2022 – present). Medium: Fine art archival giclée print