The 145th Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition, Northern Ireland’s longest-established open exhibition of contemporary visual art opens to the public on Sunday 18 October 2026 at the Ulster Museum Belfast. I’ll be showing the work above, ‘Lagan Footbridge’, and the organisers have asked me to provide a few words about it: 

‘This is an experimental photograph by artist Jonathan Brennan. Jonathan has been working on a series of works for several years now where he tries to capture the idea and feeling of walking trough a space in a single image. 

Originally used as part of a project looking at liminal or in-between spaces, which for the artist meant Belfast’s alleyways, Jonathan has broadened the scope to include streets and landmarks in this city and further afield. 
In creating this work, and others like it, the artist walks along a pre-determined path, taking photos at regular intervals. On a long street, for example, that might mean shooting a photograph every 10 paces; for shorter trajectories, then every 2 to 5 steps. 
Back in the studio, Jonathan then stacks all the photographs together to form a composite image – more or less like a double exposure, but rather using 50 to 100 images. The result is a journey in a single image. 
This particular work is a journey across the Lagan Footbridge at sunset. If one looks closely, one will see ghostly figures crossing the bridge, the outlines of buildings repeating as the perspective of each photo leaves a new trace, and even the Albert Clock.’