Creative Advisor
Craig O'Flaherty
Craig O'Flaherty's work is a celebration of light and shade, a place where poetry and photography weave together to engage the complex and contradictory nature of the world around him. Rather than seeking to rationalise or resolve what he encounters, he draws on John Keats's notion of negative capability, the capacity to remain in uncertainty, mystery and doubt without grasping for answers. His gaze, whether through a lens or a line of verse, resists fixing things in place. What draws him to a photograph is not what it defines but what it is still becoming, and if it truly moves him, he finds himself changed by it.
Showcase
Seven pieces, and what is behind them
Click on the artwork to see it larger, and read Craig’s own description of each piece.
Work 01
Weeping Angel
A photo that not longer exists. Street art in the heart of Cape Town. Taken, B&Whited. Then gold sheaf added and torn. The angel that cries for the sadness on the streets of Cape Town. Reminding us of what we need to do or say when we recognise our privilege. When angels cry they mourn the loss of souls. The joy is what tears do to cleanse out souls
Work 02
Fire Girl
A shot taken of a young violinist. Covered with lacquer, burned and wax melted. She plays with the fingers of her heart. She leaves an indelible image of how fire creates and burns beauty in this land of ours
Work 03
Windface
The blending of two continents. A windmill from Africa that waters parched earth. The street painting of a Guru from India. Merged together we have a face blown by wind and the crank of blades. Two countries that are on their own search for identity and meaning in a fast changing world
Work 04
Tin Rooster
Perched on a rooftop in Napier. A rusted tin rooster becomes a very different image with burning, blending and layering. A rooster that calls to the very soul of who we are. When seen and recognised, who is the essence and beauty that we are when we rise at dawn?
Work 05
Boating Blur
With ICM a gentle lake scene becomes something very different. Blurring adds energy and motion. The water and surrounding trees come alive. Layering adds dimensions and shadow and light to the original shot
Work 06
Cottage Sunrise
A simple cottage that has lain empty for years, lights up in the first filigree of sunrise rays. The rusted roof gets amplifies. The crust of our exterior that is light. Surrounded by wet morning grass. The original picture faded and touched with acrylic and watercolour. the cottage now inhabited by the essence of our inner world.
Work 07
Windmill Whirl
Karoo windmill, captured with ICM becomes blades that burn in the dawn sky. Layered with a series of backgrounds that deepen and amplify the motion. The soft creak of water pipes echoes in the silent morning. Africa's way of digging deep into the soul of the earth to water the dry, parched earth. We swallow at the picture, it touches us in a deeply somatic way.
In his own words
How Craig got here
The Light and Shade of Poetry & Photography
The question I have sat in for years, ‘How can you express your inner ‘voice’ into the world?’ I wanted to avoid simply adding to those countless egoic and rarely visited sites, that litter an exploding digital universe with dead stars. As a wise creative teacher once advised me, ‘Make sure that whatever you create, it’s from the unique essence of only who you can be’.
My photography, poetry and their blending, attempt to engage the complex and contradictory characteristics and aspects of an uncertain world around me, without trying rationalise or reconcile them. The poet John Keats spoke of 'negative capability' (being able to be with what’s negative), the ability to sit in uncertainty, mystery and doubt. He framed this as:
"Poetical character has no self, it is anything and nothing, it has no character and enjoys light and shade".
I feel this echoes into my photography too. Where is the photograph I am looking at? I try not look at something or someone as an object; I do not fix their place. My gaze wanders into it as if it was something about to become. If the picture truly ‘moves’ or ‘touches’ me, it makes me other than I was.
The path he took
He finished the Masterclass
Craig completed every workshop in the programme. It begins with Getting Started in Art Photography, which is where all of this starts.
Look at Getting StartedThe others
Eighteen more artists
Every creative advisor came the same way, and each one has a page of their own with the work they make now.
See all the creative advisorsCraig’s creative journey began with just one course
Every artist on these pages started at the same place, unsure whether any of it would come to anything. Getting Started in Art Photography is where that begins.
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