Duncan Wright is a Western Australian photographic artist and director, and the founder of West End Workers Studio in Walyalup/Fremantle. He studied under Max Pam and Kevin Ballantine at Edith Cowan University in Perth, before moving to the Vahland Academy of Fine Arts in Gothenburg, Sweden to finish his degree. While working commercially across a diverse range of clientele, Duncan also maintains an artistic practice that combines conceptual, commercial and journalistic approaches.
With a background in community development and a lifelong interest in the everyday people that make a place, Duncan prides himself on creating authentic imagery through meaningful and involved collaboration with subjects, merging different ways of seeing and of processing images that draw from both historical and contemporary visual languages. His work is highly research-driven, often the culmination of much image study and personal immersion in his areas of interest, which span human story and social documentary—from local sport to Australian identity—as well as the environment and landscape, conceptual still life and music.
He has exhibited in various group exhibitions, including the esteemed 2021 Fremantle Art Centre Print Award in which he was a finalist. He has had two solo shows: Happiness (2021) at the Perth Centre of Photography and A Resonance, which formed part of the Fremantle Biennale 2021 program. His work is also housed in the collection of the State Library of Western Australia, and has been commissioned by The Australian, The Guardian and Australian Financial Review, as well as the Western Australian state government and high profile musicians such as Stella Donnelly, Nick Allbrook, POND, Methyl Ethel and San Cisco. Duncan's ongoing body of work Fire, documenting the impacts of rising temperatures and the prevalence of bushfires in the Western Australian landscape, was nominated for the internationally renowned Prix Pictet award in 2021. Duncan won the 2023 Perth Centre for Photography IRIS Award for his portrait titled 'Nick, 22'.
Selected Clients: Tourism Western Australia, St Johns Ambulance, Perth Airport, Lotterywest, Cancer Council WA, Department of Premier and Cabinet, GQ, Google Arts and Culture, The Guardian, The Australian, Australian Financial Review, ABC, Triple J, Atlantic Records, The Art Gallery of WA, National Gallery of Victoria, PICA, FORM, San Cisco, Methyl Ethel, POND, Stella Donnelly, Fremantle Biennale, Broadsheet, The Guardian, Block Branding, Juicebox, 303 Mullen Lowe, Wunderman Thompson, Rare, Jarrah Records, Spinning Top Records, Remington Matters.
