MAN ON THE MOVE

Its been a really busy couple of weeks and I seem to be working longer hours than ever. But that all draws to an end soon, and I am really looking forward to travelling back to Bretagne to join up with Carole and my own Little Gráinne(who is actually getting bigger)

I had great photographic fun there in june and I hope to find the same form when I return.

The main reason for my busyness was I managed to secure a job to prepare and print the next exhibition for the national photo archive. Its all done and away at the framers right now so please if you are around Dublin from early august please drop in have a look.The exhibition is called 'Power and Privilege " and takes a revealing look in and around Irish stately homes.

I was very Privileged myself to make a second trip to the home of Conor mcMahon,a man on the move,so to speak.

In a few short days Conor is Packing up and moving to England.

He is going to work for a company that he has done consultancy work for in the past,but as consultancy work is drying up slightly here ,he has decided to take a salaried job,and go where the work is and so Surry is his destination.

I was suprised at first with Conors assertion that his back garden was his favourite place in Dublin and that is where he wished to be photograph.But after a long chat I fully understood that he was very proud of the fact that he had bought and renovated and cared for his own living space and he was really going to miss it most of all when he left.this is what he said specifically about his house" The house is my home and the store of all my effort this last few years. A place to get together with the lads to work on the tunes, or other times where I might draw, conceive new ideas for my next exhibition. It is also my home in this cul-de-sac neighbourhood where I have found myself very much part of the extended neighbourhood family that I became part of 7 years ago now."

May good luck go with you Conor and thank you for this challenge which forced us into a corner from which we had to come out fighting!!

Once more Artur,brian and Gemma made the job not so lonely as I fumbled for a few minutes with a dud set of batteries.All those cool heads saw us right in the end and we where ready to shoot by 11.00..

As I said at the start of this post its been a busy few weeks but its been great to have the space to organise and to shoot three amazing people in three very different locations.

OH LET THIS PROJECT ROLL ON!!

Please comment on this posting and indeed on the print quality in the archives next presentation (if you are so moved to) It really helps.

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ACTUAL LIFE

Good things come to those who wait!
or so the saying goes!
Last monday night,I arrived at Heuston station just after dark.

Only to find it open with a train arriving at 11.45 from cork.
I had been down the previous sunday on a look see and it was closed so i assumed this was the deal every night(not so)
As it happened The station being opened did not effect the shoot in any way.
A little later I was joined by Artur and then Brian and we waited in the car for our co-conspirator Soraya Beyer.
On ariving in Ireland 2 years Ago Soraya(from Dresden,Germany)was put to work by her new employer in the Zumo smoothie bar in Heuston station,hence her affinity with the building.

When myself and Soraya reviewed the test shots from my look see we both settled on the portico
as a good location to make this glorious parting shot.
Unlike any other part of this very well known dublin building,It had a fresh comforting,unfamiliar appeal at this particular perspective.

Soraya had come to Dublin after completing her studies,
she craved a break from academic life.
She wished to discover somewhere new,find an uncomplicated job,something to fund her through a long break,a kind of holiday from her actual life.

I know when she looks back at this photo in years to come she will understand everything about the reality of her stay here and how it actually filled in the Gaps for her as she progressed from student to teacher.
Her reason to return to Germany came all of a sudden as she was offered a teaching post she understood would not come her way.

As always this shot was powered by a bowens flash head and battery pack,2 pocket wizards,and of course Brian Dalyand Artur Sikora

It has taken me till friday to make a space to edit this work,
but the wait was worthwhile!
thank you Soraya,and good luck with your recently renewed actual life!!
Please hit the stumble upon button if you like this page it will make it discoverable by others
Comments as always are welcomed and replied to!!

Tales from the promised land

Last monday night I have to admit I was on a bit of a high.After a week of the amazing photoIreland photofest It was a delight to move on to another phase. The act of making,
Rather than looking.
(that said I am really looking forward to photoireland 2011)
I met Jacinta sheerin last year when a freind asked me to do a publicity photoshoot for an upcoming play.
It turned out Jacinta had co-written and played one of the lead roles.The play waiting for ikea.was a fringe hit and subsequently had successful runs in 2 other dublin theaters.
The same friend on hearing of my project suggested I contact Jacinta again as she was planning to move to London.
This i did last friday she was in Galway till sunday,and moving on tuesday.
Loving the work already shot she agreed to make her self free to shoot monday night.
Now thats painting yourself into a corner!!

She mentioned some grafitti that spoke to her in volumes about social reality in Dublin
and so I went to check out her suggestion!
Saturday and sunday afternoon were spent dodging showers and checking out the angels to find the perfect perspective.
Pinned that down then drew up a plan.
As always Artur Sikora,and Brian Daly were on hand to light up the night,Gemma Geraghty was charged with keeping us all invisible(a job completed with a little help from the Gardaí)
On a technical front we definitely pushed the gear as far as it could go and there was a part of the building we could not light because the little pocket wizards could not do the distance and pass thru walls as well.
To allude to the process of this and all of the leaving dublin shoots to date I have included a little video piece made up of the layers as they where seen on the ground.Leaving dublin is a documentary piece and is shot at night on location,the scene tripodded the set lit with one flash head ,a little bit at a time!
I hope it serves to add to the understanding of this a complex work.
My warmest thanks again to all who have sat for me at this a very emotionally charged time of their lives.
please comment,oh it helps!!
also if curious you can click the title at the top of the page for details of the social redevelopment that has never happened!!

Bravo-PHOTOIRELAND!!

I was delighted this week to travel by bicycle around the city from venue to venue
feasting on the treasure that has been the PHOTOIRELAND FESTIVAL
Real thought has gone into the program and i have to say all the diverse elements which make up the photographic spectrum were catered for.
That i feel is the real achievement of this the First photoireland festival and for this we have to applaud the team who put it all together,Heres to inclusion,here is to the PHOTOIRELAND FESTIVAL.
On a Personal note I will be contributing to a talk on photoblogging tomorrow at the back loft La Cathedral hope to see some of you there.


ON the top of the page there is an Image shot last week in an arichchoke field betweem stPol de Leon,and Roscof,bretagne,france
The shot is part of a sequence i have been working on and just incase you missed it on the last post i have created another link to it here please click!
My mission is to attract some other users of this medium in order to stage a small exhibition in homage to this now lost film type!!


Leaving Ireland steams on and I have 2 shots to set up for the next few weeks,lets hope the rain holds off as i am painted into a corner on the first one. It can only be done monday night and the person ships out tuesday!!

BIRD STRIKE!

Some times life can throw really strange things your way.
For example yesterday i made the journey from Rennes ,France,back home to Dublin.
On landing at Rennes our Aircraft experienced a birdstrike
which led to a very long delay of 7 hours to our flight.
The main reason was that there was no one available locally to certify the plane fit to fly at Rennes airport.
The answer to this was to fly in another Aer lingus craft
with a technician on board to certify, if possible, or to fly the passengers home if not.
As it turned out all was good and the plane took off around 9.30
7 hours after the scheduled departure time.
The Irony of the the night was that in compensation for the delay we where offered free refreshments on the flight
and for some reason the only item available from the extensive menu of sandwich's was chicken and Stuffing!!
Bird strike number 2!!
An hour and twenty minutes later we arrived in Dublin
So we jumped into a taxi to make the journey home and we where delighted to make it back to fontenoy street in less than 15 minutes.
And now for the weird bit!!
After a couple minutes I entered the main room of the house which had been closed up for most of the previous 2 weeks but
checked on friday afternoon by a friend( who confirmed to me since that it was an empty space)
Sitting on the couch was a Racing pigeon I scanned the room quickly, all the windows where closed, the fire place had a fireguard in place,and apart from the odd splattering of pigeon shite around the place all was sound.
I immediately worried about the health of the bird and tried to pick it up ass i closed in on it it bolted and it left four tail feathers in my hand (which i quickly dropped to the floor)
Bird strike number 3.
In the past I have had some photographic experience with racing pigeons and their owners and when i finally picked it up
its ring showed it was a bird born in 1996 so it was probably over 14 yeqrs old as most hatching happens in spring!!
Well the fact that a bird could make it to this ripe old age and find itself in my living space on "the night of the bird strike" is just mind blowing.
So as is so often the case in Irish Documentary photography, I decided to revisit the site of this final bird strike after the event and photograph the traces of what was left behind in an effort to capture the essence of a strange day.

Unfortunately I had cleaned the shit up immediately so all that was left to me was the tail feathers.

I HOPE I HAVE DONE THEM JUSTICE!!

By the by I visited 3 photography exhibitions,all part of the photoireland festival,and I was most impressed at the breath and depht of the content of all, See the program for the remaining week here!I am planning to get as much of it covered as possible.

Finally I added 4 new images to my type 55 gallery shot in Bretagne over the last 2 weeks click here to view it
Also my holiday postcard page is getting bigger right here
I hope you enjoy it,please comment if you have anything to say about it or any other part of this post
its always a great help to me to recieve feedback