Willie Doherty was born in Derry in 1959 and he continues to live and work in that city. He first came to prominence in the 1980s when he exhibited a series of powerful photographic works overlaid with text. These works, like all his subsequent photographic and video work, explore the complexities of living in a divided community, especially in his native Northern Ireland. Much of his work refers to an undercurrent of fear, oppression and uncertainty that for many was a daily experience of life in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Doherty has twice been shortlisted for the Turner Prize, once in 1994 and again in 2003.
