Ashley McLean is a visual artist and director based in New York City. Working primarily with photography and moving image, her practice extends into sound, installation, and text, guided by an intuitive approach to image making. She received her BFA in Photography and Video from the School of Visual Arts, studied Fine Arts at the Universität der Künste Berlin in 2021, and earned her MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University in 2026.

McLean’s work explores memory, Black subjectivity, landscape, and the emotional terrain of return. Rooted in tenderness and sensitivity, her projects move between portraiture, place, and family history, considering how photography can hold atmosphere, opacity, and lived experience.

Her work has been featured in Cultured Magazine’s 2025 Young Photographers List and shortlisted for the C/O Berlin 2026 Talent Award. She is the recipient of the 2023 Creator Labs Photo Fund from Aperture Foundation and Google Pixel, and has exhibited both domestically and internationally, including at the Arles Photo Festival and the Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents exhibition.