Lorna MacKay is an artist based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Interested in connections between people and place, her work seeks to engage with human stories of landscape and the ways in which they are represented through cultural narratives.

Influenced by her Scottish and Jewish heritage, she is deeply interested in how language and identity shape our emotional connections to the environments we inhabit.

In 2022 she was shortlisted for the National Trust’s North East Emerging Artist Prize. In 2021 she was shortlisted for the Feature Shoot Emerging Photography Award and was a recipient of the British Journal of Photography’s inaugural Decade of Change Award dedicated to addressing the climate crisis.

Her work has exhibited internationally and appeared in The Guardian, The Times and Uncut Magazine among others. She holds an MA (with Distinction) in Creative Arts Practice and a First Class BA (Hons) in Photography.

CV

Awards

2022 National Trust North East Emerging Artist Prize (Shortlisted)
2022 North East Photography Network: SHIFTS Professional Development Scheme
2021-present Artist-in-residence, Ghosts of Newcastle Gaol Project in Partnership with Newcastle University and The Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust
2021-2022 Arts Council England DYCP Grant Recipient: Bookbinding & Printmaking Skills
2021 British Journal of Photography, Decade of Change Award winner
2021 Feature Shoot Emerging Photography Awards (Shortlisted)
2019 -21 Artist-in-residence, Newcastle Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research
2018 Michael Ormerod Travel Award, Newcastle College

Exhibitions

2022 The Life and Death of Newcastle Gaol, 1822-2022. Group exhibition at Newcastle Central Library, 6 June – 31 July
2022 National Trust North East Emerging Artist Prize. Group exhibition at Seaton Delaval Hall, 28 May – 9 July 2022
2022 Investigations in Infrastructure & Everything is Narrative. Subjectively Objective Gallery, Detroit, 5 May – 15 July
2021 Lenscratch: Still Life Exhibition (Online) 1-30 November
2021 British Journal of Photography, Decade of Change Award. Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change, Hong Kong (10 June – 31 September) and New York Climate Museum during NYC Climate Week (20-26 September)
2021 Creative Arts Practice & MFA Fine Art Degree Show. Hatton Gallery, 20 August – 4 September
2021 Valance II (Newcastle Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research Residency). Vane Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 18-28 August 2021
2019 20:20 Print Exchange, Northern Print
2018 Michael Ormerod Travel Award: Solo Exhibition. Newcastle College Mandela School of Art & Design, 26 October – 30 November

Education

2019-2021 MA Creative Arts Practice (Distinction), Newcastle University
2016-2019 BA (Hons) Photography (First Class Honours), Newcastle College

Alongside her own creative practice, Lorna works as a casual senior technician in the School of Fine Art & Social Sciences at Northumbria University.

Skills & Experience

  • DBS Checked
  • Documentation: photography
  • Financial skills
  • Project management
  • Proofreading
  • Technical: photographic / moving image
  • Technique tuition: photography
  • Workshsops (adult)

BJP, decades of change award
Dawn
Noddy
Nordenskioldbreen, cyanotype print