HOPE ABOVE HOPES!

Back in April last I made a trip to London.Just a weekend,to try and catch up on some of the people I had worked with prior to their departure.On the second day of the trip I met with Bernard Tyers.
We sat out in the sun and had a pint by the canal.Just the way it should be on a sunny spring day.
Bernard was shot very early on in the series and so he ahas been in London for  over 2 years.
On the week end in question I met with several people in an orcestrated dance around  the city on tube ,train,bus,and Philippe Sibelly's Multipla!   I even got to spend some time in the country side in Surrey.
(Some of the works from this trip appears on the walls of my current exhibition at Siamse Tiré in Tralee co Kerry)

ON LEAVING,THE BACKGROUND TO THE SURVEY SERIES

Planning and executing the show On Leaving at SiamseTíre has been a revelation for me.
I am a bigger braver person after this fantastic experience.It is the most comprehensive and meaningful expression of the project to date and I look forward to presenting it to as many as is possible over the next year or so.Thanks to all at the venue who facilitated its realisation.

ON LEAVING THE BACKGROUND TO THE VISIT SERIES.

  In July 2011 I went to London to drop off some entries for a competition.
I had been shooting parting shots for 15 months and had completed about 50 images by that time.
As the months moved on I kept in touch with a number of sitters one of them Being Conor Mc Mahon who I had photographed a year previous in his own  back garden.
Conor  who now lived close to London invited me to stay over with him on my trip and suggested we meet in Victoria railway station after I had done my work up at Elephant and Castle.
Just before this time I was gifted a 6x6 camera by an old friend Brendan Doyle(retired  photographer at the National Museum of Ireland). It occurred to me that the 6x6 with a wide angle lens and waist level finder was a way back to a style of shooting I had used in the past that could provide a nice counterpoint to the very stylised colour heavily lit parting shots.
I endeavored therefor to try out a roll of black and white TMAX400 in this format and see how it worked.
The results were published on my blog on what was one of the most important days of the project to date december the 2nd 2011(see it here)(it will become obvios why if you read the post)
I continued to hone this technique through making photographs of sitters who returned(see here)
And I was delighted with the results. I made a trip to France and photographed another sitter in Quimper,Brittany Happy that my technique was good and the chance of sucess was high I set off to Australia in Late October with 3 boxes of Tmax and my 6x6 camera.To date I have shot over 30 rolls of film making this piece of the project and I will endeavor to meet as many of my sitters for this very exciting part of the process before complete the project proper.
Other works in this mode I have published on the blog where the following, Claire Weir and Brian Maxwell,Sarah Griffin,Aoife O Donnell,and Marie Carroll
All of these follow on visits have been extremely helpful to me in resolving questions asked of me by the project and for me this has been a key element of the process as it has given great meaning to the preceding work, adding depth to the stories of the individuals and reinforcing the multifarious motivations that bring about the act of migration.I say once more. It's not a lifestyle choice its a complex mix of desire,nescessity and desperation. This holds true for most of those I have met on this journey.
The Shot on top which features in the current show on in Siamse Tíre is of a great character who's company I really enjoyed on my visit to Byron Bay. A man who was watching his working life as a trucker in Ireland shrink and did something about it!Alan Pentony.
The shot was made at Bruswick heads just outside Byron A great location on beautiful day.

 Another I share with you on this post was one of the most memorable of the Australia trip.
On visiting Rockhampton, Quensland  I was brought up Mount Archer and made some shots Of Clay Crighten looking out over the Fitzroy river and his home town Rockhampton.Clay worked as a storeman in Ireland for some years before he and his Irish wife Rae Green decided to give Australia a go.
I am honoured to have met these people again in their new homes and I will endeavor to get over to the Americas to continue this process. I will also,in a future post,  fill in some more details about the show in Siamse Tíre and how a heartbeat  served as a worthy metaphor to pull two shows together (a visual ON LEAVING and a theatrical IMIGÉIN (The Scattering)both which launched on the same night)

 This post contains several back links to previous posts which in turn flesh out the story of the monochrome images in this exhibition please click through and enjoy.
Also please share and comment as both actions bring me nothing but joy!
DM1.

ON LEAVING AGAIN!

Claire Weir and Brian Maxwell returned home, in love, from London together some months ago.
Having evaluated the situation here and the difficulties involved in finding meaningful employment
they have decided to move to Perth.Western Australia.
Claire has lived there twice before as a child and when she finished college some years ago she spent over a year there before moving home, and then moving to London.
Indeed I first made contact with Claire when she was living in Freemantle just outside Perth. She had seen and liked my work on the net and started a conversation about it and photography in general. Little did i know then that I would photograph her for my series, when she returned home with Brian, and now as she is about to leave with only a few days left in Ireland.
Not a voluntary parting as Claire and Brian would be happy to stay here if work was plenty and they could have a comfortable life.But its not to be.