About The Artist

Jonathan Olley originally intended to study fine art until he discovered the war photography of W. Eurgene Smith, Don McCullin and Lee Miller. Photography was the perfect medium to combine his interest in art, social issues and human rights. He photographed the transformation of Europe following the fall of communism, including the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the market massacre in Sarajevo in 1994, the latter images earning him The Observer Hodge Award as the Young Photojournalist of the Year 1995.

His Castles of Ulster series (1998-9) photographing the architecture in Northern Ireland that ‘the troubles’ gave birth to; fortified police stations, watch towers and army barracks is by many, regarded as one of the most important documentary projects produced the UK for decades.

In his new ongoing series Land Between the Rivers and Forbidden Forest Olley continues to explore the results of war, in Iraq and Verdun where the vast quantities of ammunition left from the First World War rendering the land unusable. Now overgrown, the polluted and dangerous area around Verdun resembles an enchanted forest whose overgrown surface masks the deadly reality beneath.