Karl Doyle’s unique vision and affinity for diverse cultures is rooted in an early fascination with nomadic gypsies in his birthplace of Ireland – a group whose individuality and exotic visual appeal serve as one of the artist’s earliest and most profound memories.
After studying photography in Dublin, Karl relocated to London where he honed his creative and technical skills working with a broad range of visual artists and traveled to locations all over the globe. Curiosity brought Karl to Asia, where he discovered the Mongolian Nomads, ethereal characters who would comprise the first part of the Nomadic Worlds series.
Karl moved to New York in 1994 and was later fortunate to work on several advertising campaign projects with fashion visionary Thierry Mugler. In tandem with his own growing career, Karl’s distinct photographic style began to emerge in his own personal projects, drawing on his own talent, technical skills, and exposure to world cultures and fashion.
Karl Doyle’s Nomadic Worlds Series captures a rare authenticity that gives the viewer extraordinary access to these unusual worlds. Central to the work in the relationship between the subjects and their costumes, whether dictated by environmental and cultural factors or purely for the sake of a fashion statement as in being consciously “different.” The treatment of this relationship in the work draws attention to the fantasy in costume and magnifies the individuality of its characters, creating a timeless fairytale quality in the narrative where the subjects come complete with their implied tales. The narrative is further reinforced through separating the subjects from their environments, the use of meticulous lighting that has become the hallmark of the artist’s work, and his creative hand-printing process.
In the haunting faces of the Mongolian Nomads, and the Harajuku Girls of Tokyo and New York’s stylized sub-cultures, these nomadic worlds collide distinctively in outward appearances but share a timeless voice in the expression of each unique environment.
His more recent work titled “Secret Desires” a four year long study, is a conceptual juxtaposition of one of todays subculture’s and the erotic world of the 1930s Weimar Berlin. Focusing on the return of the corset or the practice of tight-lacing along with the popularity of latex, he choose to use these elements as his medium to contrast his subjects and to define the beauty of the constrained anatomy. The black and white images hold a vintage quality, evoking the past although reflecting the present as they meander through different scenarios of visual play for the viewer to anticipate.
Karl Doyle lives and works both in Tokyo and New York.
