Dexter McLean has dealt with the challenges of having cerebral palsy to become an award-winning photographer, with his work shown at the National Portrait Gallery. He shared his story with Pippa Duncan ahead of his solo exhibition at Orleans House Gallery
Until the age of nine, Dexter McLean grew up in Jamaica, where there wasn’t a lot of help for kids with cerebral palsy. Life was struggle until the family moved to London and he saw the possibilities for people like him: ‘When I went to school, I’d never seen so many people with disabilities and with such different needs, all getting the help they needed.’
His aunt gave him his first camera at age 13 and a new world opened up – with the view though his lens focussing on the people behind their disabilities. While he might never have imagined his work would be featured in the National Portrait Gallery, he knew he had the determination to try.
‘The tutors at college found my work very interesting and when I turned the camera on myself for a project about what my life could have been like if I had never come to the UK, that really opened people’s eye as to what I could do.
‘I think I have a unique position to try and represent disabled people in society. When you think about disabled people you treat them like they need help – as if they can’t do anything that they want to. That’s why I focus most of my work on disabled people – there’s not enough accurate representation. And it’s why I try not to talk about my colour too much – there’s not enough progress when it comes to the disabled community and I want to focus on that.’
Dexter’s work for his Masters degree in Photography at Midddlesex University attracted attention and he featured in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Photography Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in 2016 and, in November 2021, he was awarded the Hood Medal from the Royal Photographic Society. The prestigious award is awarded to bodies of work raising awareness of current issues and his portrait work of the disabled community distinguished him.
He feels that his disability helps him to see things in faces which others don’t: ‘I don’t think able-bodied people look at disabled people in the same way as I do.’
His solo exhibition at Orleans House Gallery – Tower Avenue – is a striking portraiture series, focusing on members of the community living in Kingston, Jamaica. His long-term ambition is to create a series of images to challenge historical representations of black and disabled communities.
Avenue Tower Exhibition: 17 Mar – 12 June, Orleans House Gallery
orleanshousegallery.org
Images: © Dexter McLean
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