Andrew Mcconnell

Andrew McConnell was born in the north of Ireland and began his career as a press photographer working for a daily newspaper in Belfast during the closing stages of the Troubles and the transition to peace.

Today his works focuses on themes of displacement, post-conflict issues, and the environment. He has worked in-depth on issues such as the Syrian refugee crisis, e-waste in Ghana, the ongoing blockade of the Gaza strip and the conflict in eastern DR Congo, for which he won the Luis Valutena Humanitarian Photography Award. In 2009 he photographed people from the Sahrawi communities of Western Sahara, for which he was awarded 1st place in the portrait story category of the World Press Photo awards. A follow-up project on refugees in urban areas was carried out in 8 cities worldwide and resulted in exhibitions in London and New York.

From 2014 Andrew spent four years working on his first feature length documentary ‘GAZA’, which subsequently premiered at Sundance 2019 and was selected as Ireland's entry for the Oscars' Best International Feature Film category at 2020 Academy Awards.