RICHARD AT A CROSSROADS!

This is Richard Orciuch He is the fourth Brazilian I have photographed in as many weeks.
My Interest in things Brazilian started a couple of months ago when I talked with a static guard at The National Photographic Archive.He was set to leave the country with his Girlfriend,bound for Italy, with a hope of getting residency there.I hoped to photograph them,but I never got the call!

Soon after I contacted Mariane Goldberg a friend in Sao paulo who lived here a year ago.She had some contacts still in Dublin whom she mailed and so began my work with these energetic,friendly,vibrant,hardworking,people who bring so much to our society and ask for so little in return.
Richard is 27 years old and is a teacher.In Ireland he has worked for the Metro newspaper and as a cleaner.
He used to hand out the metro paper here outside the old Moran's Hotel on the corner.For that reason he will never forget this part of Dublin.

For my own part as a child my bus into the city centre from Donnycarney( 3 miles away) turned onto Talbot street here after a long pause on Amien street where it waited forever for a filter light.
For me this was the gate to the city!

Richard cited changes in immigration policy as his reason for leaving and going home to to Brazil!
Just like my good friend Keiko Furamoto and countless others from outside the E.U. who's stay was cut short by an un-hospitable Department of foreign affairs.
On the night there was a steady stream of people passing in formal wear,some drinking from cans.
Rather surreal until I heard later that The Trinity Ball was on that night!!

We still have a lot to learn as a people,we are indeed once more at a crossroads.
But in a way we have stepped back in time to the eighties As we watch our society bled of the young, talented,and indeed those who see no future here.
I hope we can move forward with more humility and less of the arrogance which became part of our society during our time in the bubble!!


Big thanks as always to Artur,Hugh,and Ray Hegarty who now has 3 shoots behind him.
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