FOUR YEARS IN!

Its Hard to believe that its four years into the life cycle of this blog.
November 26th of November 2009 was the day I took the decisive action to post online and to develop some online projects.
135 posts later and a modest 85,000 page views I suppose it can be said that things have worked out for the best and my online life has spilled over into my reality and kept me very busy with exhibitions,making new work,planning for the future and coping with the trials and travails of trying to push work to the people!
Global Irish found me thanks to Jacolette,that led the wall street journal to my door,quickly followed by C.B.S.News and on it went till my work hit the walls in Dublin,Donegal,and than off to Melbourne.Siamse Tíre then Hosted a new show On Leaving which draws on all of my work on this subject and that was a greatest challenge and buzz to put together. Just arrived home the work now rests in large crates as it draws breath for its next big adventure as I try to push it across the atlantic.
In fact I have just launched a new website to help things along at davidmonahan.eu/

Just arrived home for a four week whirlwind  is Leaving Dublin Sitter Sarah Griffin who is here to launch a book penned in direct response to the experiences of moving.
The Fantastic Not Lost was Launched on November the 20th at The Gutter Bookshop Dublin and it was a delight to be there for a few minutes on my way to work.See Sarah pictured above and in  previous posts on my blogger pages here and here.
It was great to see the tears of joy and pride welling up as Sarah prepared to take the mike and get into the zone that she is so comfy in,the performance.
I hope to get a private audience before she flies off.
So much has happened in her life but I am not going to mention anything at all about that here.
You should read all about it in her book NOT LOST
Dug out the RZ for the shots above and devved up this morning before a stroll downtown to  see what gives.
Thanks Sarah for sharing the journey
DM1

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.

THE LAST TIME I MET DAVID

Sarah Griffin writes from San Francisco after a meeting with me  in town on a trip home!

The last time I met David Monahan was three nights before I emigrated: here, we sat in the Metro Cafe off Grafton Street, nine months later. I was at home for two weeks to have Christmas with my family: breaking the first year away down the middle with the familiarity of Dublin in winter. He called to see if I was around for a catch-up. In the myriad of pints and family gatherings, I knew I had to talk to him again - I remembered how I had almost gone and poured all my anxieties about leaving home out to him in his car after the photoshoot, on my way to my going away party. Here is my story, I am terrified because I am not terrified, I am ready to go, I think, I think, I hope – I'm pretty sure that was how it went, all the way from the Bayside graveyard to Hartcourt Street. He'd met so many people on the same path as I was: sort of like the ferryman folks met on their way down the River Styx, you meet David before you emigrate. Thing is, he doesn't take the pennies from your eyes, but instead snaps your image on film: with that exchange, you are one of the people who slipped away to see the world, leaving Ireland on the other side.

WALKING THE WALL!!

Things have been very busy in my small world of late with preparations for an upcoming show in the Photographic Archives Gallery.The show featuring my Leaving Dublin Project and the fascinating story of the Argentine Irish Diaspora,as told by Maurice Gunning, is a stroke of curatorial genius bringing together  two strands of a story and enriching the narrative by adding the layers of time and distance to the discussion.
The comings the goings,the leaving,the living!
It should form a central part of discussions around the theme of the PhotoIreland festival of which it is a part,that of migrations,the diaspora,and cultural identity.