Dexter McLean’s series gives voice to the “forgotten” members of Jamaican society

We last spoke to photographer Dexter McLean in 2022, not long after he’d graduated. However, after leaving university, where he spent more time alone and not alongside his contemporaries, he sensed a shift. “I felt a lot had changed, and I didn’t feel I had the same drive I once had for photography,” Dexter says. That was until he left London. “My recent trip to Jamaica, I think, has re-sparked my love for photography,” he continues. The trip led to his latest series, Disability in Jamaica, a project made possible by Autograph ABP and Project Art Works, as well as his GoFundMe.

Across Disability in Jamaica, Dexter documents two schools in Kingston, the STEP Centre and the School of Hope, with the aim of recontextualising the general public’s associations Jamaica. “When people go on holiday to Jamaica, they think of the beaches and the food,” he says, “but I would like my project to show people that there are people being forgotten in Jamaica.”

Through the series, Dexter also explores an alternative reality – one where he hadn’t moved to Britain as a child. “I always heard about School of Hope because if I wasn’t in the UK, I would be attending the same school,” Dexter explains. The school was enthusiastic about the project, Dexter recalls, and he took the opportunity to highlight the influence of the teachers and assistants who ran both of the schools, as well as their pupils. “I also went to a place called Chester Village around ten times,” he adds, “I loved that place; they had 21 homes, and each home was fitted with a disabled room.”

Once on location, Dexter, as per his practice, doesn’t shoot straight away; instead, he sits and speaks to his subjects. “I wanted the people to trust me, so I could get a true picture of what they have been through in Jamaica,” Dexter says. “I also interviewed some of the older people to get a true understanding of what they have been through.” As such, there is a thorough sense of understanding throughout every image, alongside an attentive and kind eye.

In each portrait, experience and subtlety intermingle to forge an understated yet powerful series, sensitive to its subjects and audience without diminishing their characters. Far from it, in fact. The series ultimately celebrates the figures of Jamaican society that, as Dexter suggests, have long gone without a voice of their own. One voice in particular that stood out to Dexter was Sylvia Grant, the person who first brought him to Chester Village. “Her picture stands out to me the most because I know the trials she has faced,” Dexter ends, “she is a five-time Paralympian, a strong person and a real motivator.”