A SHOW TO BE PROUD OF!!

Now that its come down I have to say that being involved in the photoireland festival (edition 3)
has been for me a very big experience. Having one of the main exhibitions with my now good friend, Maurice Gunning, in what has over the 3 short years has been one of the key venues, has been a fantastic experience.
Very early on we decided to make it a very sophisticated and polished show, with very high standards of presentation applied and no expense spared in the production.
For my part I must thank all who supported the fundit campaign and indeed the Immigration Museum Melbourne, both helped my component to the max!

During the course of the show some 5000 people visited and I spent as much time as I could at the venue talking to all about the work, its origins, philosophy and methodology. I met some amazing people, funders, sitters, parents, returned exiles, holidaying descendants of emigrants and those like me, the left behind.
Both myself and Maurice gave talks and interviews in the space. I gave an interview to worldirish, documentary maker Donald Taylor Black and presented the work to the public, funders and varied groups on art tours of the city.
During the show 1000 cards bearing comments of sitters were taken from the venue by eager viewers wishing to delve more into the lore created by the leaving dublin process.

A video piece presented on 2 Ipads in the foyer space allowed the public to see first hand the breadth and depth of the process. This piece was created last March and projected around the world to hail the achievements of the new Irish, the people on the move, taking up their place in the world. The soundtrack was composed and produced by Ian Monahan.

It was my wish that they should see this piece first and that has been the case in 16 different cities, towns, and counties from Japan to Brazil and all points in between.

Since the show concluded on July 23rd the work has been shown in a short edit at the Mac Gill Summer School, Glenties, Donegal and the bulk of the work is on its way to Australia by boat for a show in the Immigration Museum, Melbourne. It has to be said that the show was proposed as a result of an early commitment and announcement by the photoireland festival of the inclusion of this work in its main program. For this I must thank Angel Luis Gonzalez for his early understanding and commitment to this project. He has done this project a huge service.
Noreen Bowden and Orla Fitzpatrick were also instrumental in launching this piece internationally.
To conclude this post I must also pay tribute to all who facilitated the work night after night shoot after shoot, they are indeed named post after post and to all I am indebted.

On behalf of myself and Maurice I would like to thank all of those who showed support for both our works by actively engaging in the process of silently taking in all of the detail both the obvious and that revealed by time spent looking and revisiting the exhibition and both our sites, blogs and news postings.

The Photo Festival each year has a peoples choice award. It is based on the number of likes each exhibition achieved
So I will ask you to follow the link below, under the title at the top of the page just click on the facebook ,twitter or google plus icons to register your vote. (one click)
It would be a pure joy to achieve this accolade from the viewers who turned up in such numbers.
THANK YOU!!
David
http://2012.photoireland.org/program/david-monahan-maurice-gunning/