LAUNCH HEROS NAMED!

Thanks to all who came down to the Gallery of Photography last Thursday(dec 11th 2014) it was a pure delight to meet and share all my good feelings for those who have been part of this, The On Leaving project.
Simple as that. It wouldn't have happened without all those named here in this short clip!
Please applaud them.
Much love
David

big thanks to Ray Hegarty for the vid!!!

ON RESCHEDULING

Just a short post to let you all know that the rescheduled date and time for the book launch is Thursday, December, 11th at 6 p.m.

projections to see, books to buy, and Christmas drinks to toast all the sitters of this amazing project.

Hope to see you all there.
Sorry if the rescheduling inconvenienced anyone,it was unavoidable!

David

IMAGE AND TEXT

I can't help getting excited about my upcoming adventures in publishing and it looks like this book, ON LEAVING,will be for me all about the way and ways image and text conspire to tell a story or to stay out of each others way.
You will get where I am coming from when  you get to see the book.Its all set to be launched in a week and a half's time at the Gallery Of Photography, Meeting House Square, Temple Bar. It Happens at 6pm, on Wednesday, November 26th.
Hope to see you there!
In the meantime you can check out Alan Pentony's images on previous posts right here.(and here)
As always comments are welcomed and sharing is now so important with such a big day for the project looming.
So please like, comment and share this to any one you may feel would have an interest.
For more details on the publication, see on leaving.com

CLOSER TO HOME

Hi all  I can't wait to get to the point of presentation. Details on the poster included here.
In short, Wednesday, Nov. 26th at 6pm at the Gallery of Photography.
See the post about Mick Reid here, It's a good one! It's all about the  hard choices we make in life.
I believe this man has made it home from Adelaide Australia for a visit. I am really looking forward to meeting him again. I know so much has changed for him. I want to hear about it!
David

ABOUT TO TAKE FLIGHT

Wow! It is such a thrill to be standing at this point in the process making it all work out.
Arranging for the launch of the book to happen.
The printing has by now taken place and from my few hours spent on the press pass a couple of days ago it seems like all will be good and we will have a book to be proud of in a couple of weeks.
This book is being made with the sole purpose of honouring the Heros, the men and women who had to leave this country in the midst of economic turmoil.Its a big undertaking and I hope lots of you turn up on the night to view and to buy this 304 page salute to the men and women who I feel are indeed our brightest stars shining for all of Ireland out there in the firmament.
keep an eye here for updates as we go and get closer to the date!
se the original Ciara picture here
David

THE ROAD TO PRODUCTION!

The webpage onleaving.com has just been launched it was put out there as I was showing some work in Dublin Castle yesterday and I wanted my audience there to come up to speed quickly about what I do. Also I want the book to be a success and I suppose that is measured for me in how many copies I can move in the first two months or so.
Another reason is that the De Luxe edition will only be 150 in number with 27 of them reserved already it might be a good idea to reserve yours before it hits the shops.
You will get it at the good price of €150 and for that you will get a numbered signed copy of the book in a beautifully orange cloth case and a signed and numbered print of a shot from the "Leaving  Dublin" series.This book of over 300 pages will feature all 84 images from the leaving Dublin series,an edit of the empty Spaces series and an edit of the visitation series along side critical,historical,literary and personal essays and other intriguing information from the life of this compelling project.
It is important for me to stress that anybody who pledged support in the crowd funding campaign can upgrade their contribution to the De luxe edition from their initial contribution.If you wish to do this email me direct at dmon@me.com for instructions.
With limited numbers and only one print run of this edition.
This will be the one for sure!
In getting the last few shots together for the book I visited the S.C.R. Dublin, La Défense,Paris and Portlaoise.It is and still remains the biggest run of my life cramming so much activity into one year and making huge efforts to make things happen and happen in the right way.
From here it would appear that all is still on track and the book will be available for launch within the first two weeks of November.

It was a great pleasure to meet with Jose Carlos Lorenzo He returned to Dublin after some time spent in Miami Florida,USA.He has now left Ireland for Barcelona,in his own native Spain.We had a great chat and of course a fantastic laugh talking in the Garden at Noshington cafe on the S.C.R. in Dublin.
Success will follow him to Spain for sure!
Shortly after this shoot I was  spending some time with family in France when I got a  mail from Paris which left me with no alternative than to travel there by car and get a photograph of Emmanuelle Pinjon and her now Husband Guglielmo Casu as they are now happily awaiting twins!
We met close to there home at the Grande Arch of La Défense and wow what a big arch it is!
They appeared happy, confident and well settled into Parisian life after a couple of years.I look forward to see how things progress with the arrival of their babies.

Lastly a trip to a Portlaoise brought me face to face with a now dear friend whom I last saw in Perth Western Australia almost 2 years ago.That persson was Elaine Bannon . It was a total pleasure to stay for a couple of hours with Elaine as she prepared to jet back to Perth and I left her Mothers house with a bag full of the nicest apples from the tree she is pictured beside. I have placed her beside another dear friend  Keiko  Furamoto who saved me a trip to Japan by  visiting Dublin a couple of months ago.This is how these images may appear in the upcoming book the one that I will start posting about now,in earnest.

 It would be great if you  posted all upcoming posts from me and shared them freely with all of your social networks as I feel this would greatly contribute to getting the word out there about the upcoming publication pictured above.

WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT!

Whats it all about indeed! Young Irish men and women scattered to the four corners of the world and left there. Left to their own devices and succeeding.We dont really have to worry to much!
They are an educated bunch for sure.They will have no problems getting on.
 But there are loads of serious questions to be asked and conversations to be had about this process.

TIME FOR ACTION

Aoife Mc Monagle,Toronto,Canada.

Greetings one and all.
Today I am sitting back and taking it easy after a marathon few weeks in which I covered a lot of ground.
You have seen some pictures from Sao Paulo already.
Since then I have travelled from Aoife in Toronto,on to Julie in Vancouver, from there to San Francisco to Sarah and on by car to Berkeley to se Jana and family.
From there on to Hollywood by car to see Brian and Aileen, then to Mexico to see Ara and Darragh, on to New York to Visit with Naoise,and then here to see Sean, Leia,Astrid and Sebastian.
This only leaves one visit to Akron,Ohio to visit Aoife Mooney the third of the three Aoifes in this now over four year long process.
Well now, when I say sitting back I suppose I mean not running off to the airport or car rental garage to move on after 12 or 24 hours in one place.
In fact I have been holed up in my old friends Eileen and Mark's house in Oak Park a short drive from downtown Chicago, planning the next phase of this insane adventure.
Whilst here I have taken the opportunity to process my films and I ran around today with Eileen to try and get some low res scans for this post.
We found a place but didn't have a week to wait for the results so what you see are the results of an improvisation with an iPad (lightbox), my Hasselblad and an extension tube.

Brian O'Neill,Hollywood,California,U.S.A.

Why such haste I hear you ask,why run around the place like a mad thing!whats the point in revisiting all these people!
Well its interesting you should ask!
 Back in December last is when this roller coaster ride started. I had a call from Solas Nua
asking if I would work with them to bring my show to Washington D.C. They had hosted the documentary Skin In The Game, a film in which my work featured and it had hit more than one of the key people in that organisation as interesting and very relevant to issues currently on the agenda in Washington.
Straight away I started planning and it very quickly became apparent that a book to Finnish the project and to present at the next set of exhibitions was the way forward.
  So here I am, again swinging from tree to tree trying to make it all work, knowing that a crash to ground is just one more vine away if I don't keep my wits about me.
Right now I have an active project on ,(click to see), Fundit.ie and Its Aim is to raise 50% of the cost of production of a self published book.
This Is where you,the readers of this blog come in.You know how long I have worked on this project,you know the quality of the work, you know the depth of information contained with in this blog regarding this insightful and historically significant work.
You Know that a three hundred page fully formed volume of this work would be a major achievement
and thus I am appealing to you to go to the fundit page(click here) and just Pre-order your copy.
By Paying for it up front you are ensuring that this project comes full circle in a timely fashion,the book gets produced and you get your copy at, or below the final cover price.

Ara Lopez,Darragh McMunn,Teotihuancan pyramid,Mexico

When I return home on the 23rd of may I will scan and present more  work from around the corners of this amazing continent.

Please share and let others for whom this work might be interesting know by sharing all relevant links

Thanks 

DAVID

A BEAUTIFUL BEGINNING TO AN END!

Last December I had an email that set me on a course. The mail an invitation to show work in Washington D.C. later in the year. The course, to finish the project I had been working on for the last 4 years and to have a publication ready for said expo when it happens.
If I knew then what I knew now perhaps I wouldn't have set myself such ambitious targets. Work, work, work has been my song ever since as I have studied, planned and executed phase after phase of what has been to date and what will continue till the end to be a life changing experience. It would seem that I have at least 4 components of this project moving in parallel at any given time.

THIS IS REAL,IT SINGS A SONG OF A MODERN IRELAND!

And so it goes.Time passes and as the picture unfolds we see ourselves ,ever changing ,ever-present in the moment,coping,changing,acknowledging,moving forward. For it is only in realising what has happened in the past that we can sustain ourselves into the future.
The future for a lot of our recent departees is that they will never live in Ireland again.
They will call somewhere else home,their children will adopt a different national identity,sure they will be proud of their Irish heritage this of course is true,for it is a proud heritage to belong to the kind of Oísin,Ná Fianna,Gráinne Mhaol,Brendan the Navigator,Wolftone,Emmet,Pearse,Connolly.
The Literary tradition of the scribes,Sheridan,Swift,Wilde,Yeats,Joyce,Flan O'Brien,Heaney, Griffin,etc,etc.But still they will never come home save for a holiday to spend some time in this magical pool the place to restore,renew,revive the feelings that make the Irish Irish.

DIVING IN!

Shot on a silent morning in Dublin on 4x5 transparency this shot stands as a reminder to all of us that when we leave we leave so much history behind,Personal,public,of home and of city.
This work is part of an ongoing series called "A survey for the departed"this survey sets out to remap the city and its environs specifically for those who have left and have been participants in the "Leaving Dublin" series.In this case the image was made specifically for Henning Koestler who I photographed there last summer on a hot evening late in june See the original post here

NEW DAWNS!

The Fury Glen in the Pheonix Park at dawn on glorious transparency film,5x4 inch transparency film.
This work is part of an ongoing series called "A survey for the departed" this survey sets out to remap the city and its environs specifically for those who have left and have been participants in the "Leaving Dublin" series.
In this case the image was made specifically for Neasa O'Shea Brady who I had photographed there
Over 3 years ago on a cold dark January night

The Chase Resumes

Tuesday February 2014,6.30 am the alarm goes off and I awake,my excitement bristling as I rise before the dawn hoping to catch it at the end of a short trip to Sandycove and the 40ft.
It has been over three and a half years since I went there on a very dark and impossible night to make work with Bernard Tyers. In fact its been almost 10 months now since I met him again in his new home in London and made the attached photo.
The time spent making the leaving Dublin project has been amazing!On leaving brings together 3 strands of this unreal experience and for the next few months I will be chasing down people and places to bring the work to a close before publishing a book in the autumn to coincide with an exhibition launch stateside.
Fantastic!

BRAVE NEW WORLD!

Truth said there has been a bit of negativity and cynicism hanging around the Lilliputian for the last few posts. Now that the heat is off Ireland internationally, I suppose we should redouble our efforts to ignore the political to and fro-ing that makes Irish life so tedious and feel good in the knowledge that as long as nothing changes too much, the politicos, their managers, advisors, scriptwriters etc will keep that little industry rolling on forever and a day.
No more political entertainment here till at least 6 months before the next General election!

Lets talk about people instead. You know the type that featured in The Leaving Dublin project.
The hard working, motivated, living, loving leavers who had no choice but to cross the street to take a walk in the sunshine.
I have had reason to look out for them of late.
I have been curious about there lives.
What they are doing?
How they are getting along?
How they are settling?
How are things working out?
On Visits to London, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney,  Melbourne, Christchurch, Brittany and as some returned to Dublin for a visit or to resettle, I have met with lots of my sitters. Posts relating to these visits can be found here.