Biography

Ulrick Lawrence was born in Franklyn Town, Kingston, Jamaica where he lived with his mother in the back room of the bar operated by his father until he was about the age of 7. He lived with his father for a time after his mother was in an accident that left her hospitalized with a broken leg.

For all his life,Ulrick has had a deep abiding love for the sciences and figuring out how things work. Because of this, he had many misadventures with his sibling's electronics devices. He went on to study computer science in school and worked for several years in the construction sector, starting as a kitchen and bathroom cabinet installer but quickly moving to design because of the desire to better understand the things he does.

Ulrick was first introduced to photography as a child of about 5 or 6 when his father got a Polaroid camera and took it to the bar to take some pictures. Ulrick was so enamoured with the process that he thought was magical, an experience which has stuck with him to this day.

Ulrick Lawrence is a self-taught landscape photographer. As a first-time entrant of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s (JCDC’s)2018 Jamaica Visual Arts Competition & Exhibition, he copped Silver and Bronze Awards for his pieces“Hidden in Beauty” and “Struggles” respectively. The pieces were displayed as part of the “Celebrating Photography” Exhibition put on by the Jamaica Photography Society of which Ulrick is a member which ran from November 2018 to March 2019.

Ulrick believes that there is beauty to be found in the most desolate or mundane of places, one just has to go looking. The works Ulrick produces are best viewed as moments in time into which the viewer is invited to transport themselves. Any interpretation of the work is left to the observer, as it is his sincere belief that art should never impose itself but should speak directly to the heart and emotions.

Many viewers of his pieces have commented on the soothing and tranquil nature of his works and one can see the progression from the vivid hues of his earlier works to the more understated but no less vibrant pieces he has more recently produced. One of his favourite sayings is “perception is reality” and throughout his work, the overriding theme is the reality of nature, devoid of distractions and judgments, as simultaneously and contrastingly stark and stunning.