1994 - Seán Hillen begins his ‘Irelantis’ collage series
Seán Hillen’s highly influential Irelantis series takes a surreal and irreverent look at the mythologies of modern Ireland, mixing the familiar sights (and sites) of tourist postcards with the fantastical, to reveal the strange in the seemingly ordinary. The scalpel-and-glue collages, most no bigger than a postcard, are a bizarre hybrid of everyday postcard visuals... [Continue]
1993 - Duane Michals – Photography and Reality Retrospective 1958-1990 Exhibition premieres in Ireland at the Gallery of Photography
Gallery of Photography was delighted to bring the work of world-renowned American photographer Duane Michals to Ireland. Michals, convinced that photography cannot represent reality, dwells on the invisible: dream, loss, death, myth, spirit. Most urgently, he has sought to undermine accepted complacencies, to pose, if not necessarily to answer, questions about the nature of reality,... [Continue]
2006 - The Central Bank Art Commissions – Michael Boran
In his Central Bank Commission, Michael Boran’s work focuses on the Plaza and steps. It reveals the secret poetry of fleeting moments captured as people go about their everyday business. A man looking in his wallet shows the keepsake snapshot inside. People entering and leaving the building make bold patterns against the steps, playfully mirroring... [Continue]
2006 - The Central Bank Art Commissions – Michael Durand
Facts and figures feature prominently in Michael Durand’s Central Bank Commission, an engaging series of portraits of Central Bank staff, Statistical Portraits. Durand has portrayed each person with a pile of decommissioned (shredded) money. The size of the pile of cash corresponds to a statistic of the person’s choosing: from 1.45 euro (the average annual donation... [Continue]
2006 - The Central Bank Art Commissions – David Farrell
For his Central Bank Commission, David Farrell’s presents When A Building Sleeps, a series of photographic prints and video works shot inside the bank after office hours. Farrell deftly sets up a set of relationships – between reflection and reality; interior and exterior; and daytime and nighttime. Like the building’s suspended floors, the work conveys... [Continue]
2007 - Source Magazine launches ‘Graduate Photography Online’
Graduate Photography Online is Source’s annual showcase for Photographers graduating from University and Art College based photography courses. Since the project’s introduction in 2007 the majority of participating courses have been drawn from Colleges and Universities based in the UK and Ireland – though they have had courses from the USA and even Dubai take part.... [Continue]
2020 - First issue of ‘Over Journal’
Over Journal – the Critical Journal of Photography and Visual Culture for the 21st century is produced by PhotoIreland. To find out more visit Over
2009 - Ángel Luis González founds PhotoIreland Foundation
PhotoIreland Foundation was founded by Ángel Luis González in 2009. It changed its name to PhotoIreland and now runs an annual PhotoIreland Festival and the Halftone print fair. In 2020, it launched the publication Over Journal – the Critical Journal of Photography and Visual Culture for the 21st century. In addition, it runs an art... [Continue]
1921 - Mrs Bridget Whelan on a vigil outside Mountjoy Prison, Dublin
Mrs Bridget Whelan, the mother of 19-year-old Thomas Whelan, with a crowd of supporters outside Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, on the day before Thomas was executed. Maud Gonne McBride stands to her left side. 13th March 1921 W.D Hogan Collection, HE:EW.2038 Courtesy National Museum of Ireland
1972 - The Blue Marble
This photograph was taken by Harrison Schmidt during the Apollo 17 Mission on December 7th 1972. It remains one of the most widely circulated photographs of all time. It has been credited with contributing to an increased interest in environmentalism and Green politics during the 1970s. Image courtesy NASA
1945 - Mushroom cloud over Nagasaki, 9 August 1945
A dense column of smoke rises more than 60,000 feet into the air over the Japanese port of Nagasaki, the result of an atomic bomb, dropped from a U.S. B-29 Superfortress on August 9, 1945. Twenty-six-year-old lieutenant Charles Levy captured the photograph with his personal camera while aboard the B-29 aircraft The Great Artiste, an... [Continue]
1941 - Belfast Blitz
“Land of Hope and Glory” York Road, Belfast Photograph from a report compiled by the Ministry of Public Security on the air raids on Belfast and their aftermath. Ministry of Public Security, records of the Cabinet Secretariat Courtesy: Public Records Office of Northern Ireland
1923 - Jubilant crowd of Irish Free State soldiers and civilians, c.1923
Image courtesy Desmond FitzGerald Collection, UCD Archives
1904 - JJ Clarke photographed the fashionable street life of Dublin
A native of Monaghan, J.J. Clarke (1879-1961) took up photography while a medical student in Dublin. Between 1897 and 1904 he produced a remarkable series of images showing fashionable streetlife in the city. Facilitated by improvements in camera technology, these informal pictures capture the dynamism of a thriving metropolis. They illustrate women’s increased visibility and... [Continue]
1898 - ” I would willingly exchange every single painting of Christ for one snapshot.” – G.B. Shaw
George Bernard Shaw began his love affair with photography in 1898 when he bought his first camera. He remained a keen amateur while also writing with his characteristic panache for the various photography magazines that sprang up around the turn of the century. In the debates that raged around ‘pictorialism’, Shaw sided with the ‘modernist’... [Continue]
1920 - Fake news – ‘The Battle of Tralee’
In an intensifying propaganda war, the British Army press officers at Dublin Castle contrived what they called the ‘Battle of Tralee’. An early example of photographic ‘fake news’ his was completely staged for newsreel film crews and photographers. Auxiliaries, some dressed as civilians played the role of ‘Sinn Feiners’ in a mock encounter that was loosely... [Continue]
1921 - Start of a reprisal burning at Meelin, Co. Cork
Scene of a reprisal burning at Meelin, Co. Cork, 14th January 1921. The Brown Family farm cottage was destroyed in an official British reprisal. This photograph was taken at the moment the official reprisal began, and shows the men of the village being rounded up and guarded by British soldiers, while other soldiers were blowing... [Continue]
1914 - Uniformed Irish Volunteers at Coosan Training Camp, Athlone, Summer 1914.
Group photograph of uniformed Irish Volunteers at Coosan Training Camp, Athlone, Summer 1914. Image: courtesy National Museum of Ireland HE:EW.2732
1915 - Studio portrait of Countess Constance Markievicz
Studio portrait of Countess Constance Markievicz (née Gore-Booth) in uniform with a gun. Courtesy: NLI KE 82
1914 - Molly Childers steered the Asgard in the Howth gun-running incident.
The Howth gun-running, July 1914. Molly Childers at the wheel of the Asgard, steering the yacht that brought some 1500 Mauser rifles into Howth in support of the efforts of the Irish Volunteers at the outbreak of war. Molly wore a red jacket as a signal for those meeting the yacht that everything was going... [Continue]
1912 - The Marconi Room, on board the Titanic
Born in Cork in 1880, Francis Browne entered the Society of Jesus novitiate at the age of 17. While teaching in Belvedere College in Dublin, he received a present from his uncle, Robert Browne, Bishop of Cloyne: a ticket for the maiden voyage of RMS Titanic from Southampton, England, to Queenstown [Cobh], Ireland, via Cherbourg,... [Continue]
1908 - Postcard from the Ballymaclinton Irish ‘village’ at the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition in London
Fake villages were regular attractions at fairs and exhibitions throughout Europe and North America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the most elaborate in an Irish context was staged at the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition in White City, London. Called Ballymaclinton it was erected at a cost of £30,000 by McClinton’s Soap... [Continue]
1888 - Spectators observe the eviction of the Bermingham family from their cottage on the Vandeleur estate in Kilrush, Co. Clare.
The bailiff’s team met with resistance from within the Bermingham family cottage on the shore of the Shannon Estuary. The house was barricaded by the occupants, using tree branches and hedges, through which the family used tin syringes to squirt hot water at the eviction team outside. Because spectators were prevented from coming close to... [Continue]
1890 - Patrick O’Brien’s Kodak image of two policemen ‘shadowing’ Rev David Humphreys in Tipperary during the rent strike.
The Plan of Campaign’s combination of politics and photography came to a head in Tipperary town in 1890. During a major dispute between tenants and the landlord on the Smith-Barry estate, the construction of new streets and a market arcade for the evicted tenants became national and international news. The National League led a huge... [Continue]
1844 - Portrait of Rev. William Glendy – early salt paper print
A salt print photograph of the Reverend William Glendy (1752- 1853), taken by Edwin Wilkins Field, London, 1844. The verso is inscribed (by an unknown person): Rev W. Glendy Photographed in the infancy of the art by my friend E.W. Field Solicitor of London, in the year 1844. William Glendy was the son of John... [Continue]
1844 - The Pencil of Nature is the first commercially published book to include photographs
William Henry Fox Talbot’s The Pencil of Nature was described by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as “a milestone in the art of the book greater than any since Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type.“ It was published by Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans in six installments between 1844 and 1846. The book detailed Talbot’s development... [Continue]
1839 - Sir John Herschel makes the first photograph on glass
Dated 9 September 1839, this is the earliest photograph on glass. It shows the 40-foot telescope built by the photographer’s father, Sir William Herschel in Slough outside London. Sir John Herschel (1792 –1871) was a polymath: mathematician, astronomer, chemist, botanist and experimental photographer. As well as inventing the cyanotype, or blueprint, it was he who... [Continue]
1996 - New Home for the Gallery of Photography
After more than six years in development, Gallery of Photography Ireland moves to its new home in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar. Designed by O’Donnell & Tuomey Architects, the concept for the building was inspired by the Box Brownie camera. Photo of Architect’s model of the building, © O’Donnell & Tuomey Architects
1939 - National Folklore Collection is underway
On a visit to Germany in 1936, Séamus Ó Duilearga, the head of the newly-created Irish Folklore Commission, bought a Rolleiflex camera for the Commission. Although the aim of the Commission was to document traditional folk culture in Ireland, the methods it used were strikingly modern. Its collectors used portable Ediphone sound recorders as well... [Continue]
1924 - Carl von Sydow photographs rural Ireland
In 1920, the Swedish folklorist Carl von Sydow visited Ireland for the first time. He spent the summer in Kerry and Cork perfecting his spoken Irish, which he had already learned in Sweden. In 1924 he returned to the Blaskets and to the Aran Islands, and took some celebrated photographs of the islanders. Here, a... [Continue]
1901 - “Edison’s Latest Discovery – Electric Living Pictures” “Toft’s Show at Tramore Races”
Electricity was first introduced into Ireland in 1880 with the installation of the first public electric street lamp outside the offices of the Freeman’s Journal on Prince’s Street in Dublin. The same year the Dublin Electric Light Company was formed to provide public street lighting from three coal-fired power plants. Some twenty years on, electricity... [Continue]
1863 - Timothy O’Sullivan – ‘The Harvest of Death’
Little is known about Timothy H. O’Sullivan’s personal history – he may have been born in Ireland or born to Irish parents soon after they had emigrated to New York City around 1840. His photograph of the rotting dead awaiting burial after the Battle of Gettysburg remains one of the best-known photographs from the American... [Continue]
1857 - Earliest known photographic archive of prisoners in Ireland, August 1857.
Mountjoy Prison in Dublin was opened in 1850, and represents a key moment in Irish mid-Victorian penal reform. Its design was informed by the recently-established Pentonville Prison in London and served the increasing need for Irish prison spaces as the practice of transportation to British colonies declined. The decision to document its inmates was in... [Continue]
1865 - William Lawrence opened a photography studio in Sackville Street, Dublin
William Mervyn Lawrence (1840-1932) was an entrepreneur who recognised the commercial potential of photography and opened a photography studio on Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) in Dublin in 1865 where he employed photographers, printers, colourists, retouchers and sales personnel. Though not a photographer himself, his business thrived. As indicated by the advertisement from the 1890s,... [Continue]
1866 - Fenian Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, photographed in Mountjoy Gaol
Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa was arrested in September 1865 during the suppression of the Fenian newspaper the Irish People. He was held in Mountjoy Prison until his trial in December. He wrote about this portrait being taken in Mountjoy, describing how he was positioned in front of the camera with a pasteboard with his name printed... [Continue]
1861 - The first colour photograph, as opposed to a painted black and white photo, was created by James Clerk Maxwell and Thomas Sutton
On May 17, 1861, Scottish physicist Sir James Clerk Maxwell presented the very first colour photograph at the Royal Institution. The photograph showed a tartan ribbon and was made by Thomas Sutton according to the three-colour method proposed by Maxwell as early as 1855. The process involved photographing the ribbon three times, each time with... [Continue]
1859 - Stereo photograph by James Robinson of Dublin makes legal history
The prominent Dublin photographer James Robinson set up a tableau vivant of ‘The Death of Chatterton’ a popular Pre-Raphaelite painting by Henry Wallis. Robinson made stereo photographs of his recreation. His motives were clear: the painting had drawn large numbers of paying customers when it was shown at The Royal Academy in London in 1856... [Continue]
1853 - Dublin Great Industrial Exhibition of 1853 by Edward King Tenison
In its day, the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1853 was the largest international event to be held in Ireland. The building, located on the grounds of Leinster House, on Merrion Square was designed by John Benson, who had designed the building for the Irish Industrial Exhibition held in Cork the previous year. Queen Victoria accompanied... [Continue]
1848 - William Smith O’Brien and Thomas Francis Meagher under arrest
Generally believed to be by Leone Glukman, this is one of the earliest photographs of the ‘Young Irelanders’. William Smith O’Brien (seated) and Thomas Francis Meagher are shown flanked by a soldier and a gaoler or ‘turnkey’. Photo historian Eddie Chandler has noted that the image is said to have been taken just after the... [Continue]
1851 - The Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, London
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were active patrons of photography. Their patronage of the Great Exhibition in 1851 gave millions of visitors their first opportunity to see a photograph, some of which had been lent by the royal couple themselves. The exposition was a great success. Over the five months it was open to the... [Continue]
1887 - Anti-eviction protestors at Bodyke, County Clare
Anti-eviction protesters with an effigy of Colonel O’Callaghan, the principal landowner at Bodyke, in Co. Clare. O’Callaghan had refused to lower rents even though his tenants were in distress. In June 1887 O’Callaghan called for police assistance in evicting the tenants, who resisted by force, witnessed by large crowds. An early instance of photo-reportage, this... [Continue]
1963 - President John F. Kennedy visits Ireland, June 1963
John F. Kennedy became the first serving American president to visit Ireland. From his motorcade though Dublin to his departure from Shannon airport just four days later, he was greeted by huge crowds wherever he went. As a descendant of Famine immigrants, Kennedy’s visit was a landmark moment in the history of Irish-American relations, further... [Continue]
1963 - President Kennedy takes tea at the Kennedy ancestral farm in Dunganstown, Co. Wexford.
Image courtesy: JFK Presidential Library & Museum, Boston
1992 - Anthony Haughey ‘Home’ series
For over a year Haughey lived and worked on the Ballymun housing estate in Dublin. His resulting award-winning social documentary project Home concentrated on the daily lives of several families and was one of the first major Irish documentary projects to utilise colour photography. You can see more of the project on his site here.
1980 - Out of the Shadows exhibition, the first major survey of Irish art photography
Out of the Shadows presented a groundbreaking survey of creative photography at a time when the medium was just beginning to be recognised as an art form in Ireland. The exhibition was curated by John Osman, founder of the Gallery of Photography, and supported by the Arts Council – the first time a photography exhibition... [Continue]
2021 - Gilles Peress’ epic summation of his work in Northern Ireland published by Steidl
In 1972, Magnum photographer Gilles Peress photographed the British Army’s massacre of civilians on Bloody Sunday in Derry, and he returned to Northern Ireland again in the 1980s. Whatever You Say, Say Nothing, Peress’ 1,960-page summation of his work in Northern Ireland, was thirty years in the making. It places scenes of everyday life in... [Continue]
2021 - Dara McGrath’s Centenary project ‘For Those That Tell No Tales’ premiered at Crawford Art Gallery, Cork
Dara McGrath’s For Those That Tell No Tales is a major body of work exploring place, memory and the War of Independence. Approximately 1,400 people died as a direct result of the conflict between 1919-21. Cork saw some of the bloodiest fighting: a total of 528 people lost their lives in the city and county,... [Continue]
2019 - Eamonn Doyle’s mid-career retrospective ‘Made in Dublin’ published by Phaidon
Building on the success of his own self-published projects, this lavish mid-career retrospective surveys Doyle’s innovative approach to street photography. The publication features powerful design from Doyle’s long-time collaborator Niall Sweeney.
1970 - Publication of ‘An Muircheartach’ by Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh (1907-1967)
This book of 320 black-and-white photographs taken between between the 1940s and the 1960s by Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh (1907-1967) documents rural life in Ireland, particularly in the Gaeltacht, the Irish-speaking districts. Ó Muircheartaigh was born in Dublin and worked for most of his life in the Department of Education. He was a friend and protégé... [Continue]
1985 - ‘Ireland – A Week in the Life of a Nation’
Over 50 internationally recognised photographers (including 15 from Ireland) took part in Ireland – a week in the life of the nation during the last week of August. The resulting book was published the following year. Edited by Red Saunders and Syd Shelton, it featured 250 photographs alongside a number of texts by Anthony Cronin.
1989 - ‘Through the Brass Lidded Eye – Photography in Ireland 1839-1900’ by Eddie Chandler and Peter Walsh is published
Through the Brass Lidded Eye – Photography in Ireland 1839-1900 was published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Guinness Museum, Dublin. Eddie Chandler was involved in photography in Ireland from the 1960s to his death in 2010. Internationally renowned for his expertise, he spent years actively researching his subject. He amassed a substantial collection... [Continue]
2000 - Major retrospective of Harry Thuillier Jr at the Gallery of Photography.
This posthumous retrospective of Irish photographer Harry Thuillier Jr featured a range of dark and shadowy work, showcasing in particular his mastery of the arcane platinum printing process. Thuillier died in tragic circumstances at the age of just 33.
2001 - David Farrell wins the European Publishers Award for his project ‘Innocent Landscapes’
On foot of this coveted Award, Farrell’s work was published in hardback editions by five European publishers, with French, German, Italian, Spanish and English-language texts as appropriate. Image: Ballynultagh, 2000, from the series Innocent Landscapes. You can see more from the project on his website.
2004 - Donovan Wylie published his acclaimed MAZE book and series
Between 2002 and 2003 Donovan Wylie spent almost a hundred days photographing inside the Maze prison. Through its history of protests, hunger strikes and escapes, this prison, holding both republican and loyalist prisoners, became synonymous with the Northern Ireland conflict. After the Belfast peace agreement in 1998, inmates were gradually released, but the Maze remained... [Continue]
2003 - John Duncan’s series ‘Trees from Germany’
John Duncan’s series Trees from Germany explores the rapid development of his native Belfast in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement. He shows how the city was transformed by an influx of investment capital much like the rapid economic growth of southern Ireland characterised as the Celtic Tiger. Duncan is one of the editors... [Continue]
2008 - Eoin O’Conaill receives the Gallery of Photography’s Artist Award for his project ‘Common Place’
Eoin O’Conaill received the Gallery of Photography’s Artist Award for his project Common Place. The work formed the basis of his first major solo exhibition and is a subtle exploration of Ireland during the recent period of cultural and economic change. Its atmospheric images are of fractured landscapes of contemporary life on the hinterlands of... [Continue]
2009 - Simon Burch’s project Under a Grey Sky
Made over four years, the work explores the rain-soaked peatlands of Ireland’s central plain, the most intensively industrialised landscape in the country. In large scale colour landscapes and portraits, Burch captures the distinctive textures of this unique area, revealing hidden surprises. With its palette of browns and muted greys, Burch’s work has a strong painterly... [Continue]
2012 - Premiere of ‘THE MARKET’ by Mark Curran
For this ambitious undertaking, Irish artist Mark Curran contacted stock and commodity exchanges around the globe, including the Irish Stock Exchange, London and Frankfurt’s financial centres and the recently established Ethiopian Commodity Exchange in Addis Ababa. Negotiating access took on average more than 18 months. The installation in Ireland’s Gallery of Photography combined photographs, film,... [Continue]
2011 - Belfast Photo Festival is founded
Launched in 2011, this biennial photographic event has been described as one of the “top ten photography festivals in the world” (Capture Magazine) and attracts upwards of 80 thousand visitors a year, celebrating some of the finest National and International contemporary photography across leading museums, galleries and public spaces. Capturing wide appeal through popular culture,... [Continue]
2020 - National Photography Collection at Gallery of Photography Ireland is established
The National Photography Collection builds on Gallery of Photography Ireland’s existing archival print holdings of over 100 works by leading contemporary photographic practitioners. This artist-focused collection will define an artistic canon for the medium, fostering a wider understanding and appreciation of art photography. The collection’s patron is the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins. For... [Continue]
2007 - Karl Grimes’s ‘Dignified Kings Play Chess on Fine Green Silk’ project
The National Museum and Gallery of Photography jointly presented Dignified Kings Play Chess on Fine Green Silk, a body of work by Irish photographer Karl Grimes based on his artist-in-residency at the Natural History Museum. In photographs, drawings, lightboxes, text and sound, it re-interprets the museum ‘Dead Zoo’ collections and Victorian museum practices in Ireland.... [Continue]
1996 - Krass Clement publishes ‘Drum – a place in Ireland’
Danish photographer Krass Clement’s Drum, was photographed in the eponymous village in County Monaghan. The series unfolds in the village pub, and was largely shot over a single evening with only three and a half rolls of film. It is now considered one of the most important contributions to the canon of contemporary photobooks. Revolving... [Continue]
1966 - Evelyn Hofer made her series which was published in ‘Dublin: A Portrait’ with an essay by V.S. Pritchett
German-American artist Evelyn Hofer (1922-2009) is one of the foremost female photographers in recent history, and her works still captivate us today with their intensity and clarity of form. Over five decades she pursued her métier as a kind of artistic sociological research, and covered a wide spectrum of subjects and genres, from city views... [Continue]
1964 - Fergus Bourke, acclaimed documentary photographer begins working in Dublin
Fergus Bourke (1934-2004) has long been regarded as one of Ireland’s foremost and finest photographers. His body of work spans a variety of genres from an extensive career. He was renowned as a photographer of Dublin street scenes in the 1960s, depicting the now vanished world of tenements and children’s games, each one quietly observed... [Continue]
1968 - Jim Fitzpatrick creates the iconic portrait of Che Guevara, based on a 1960 photo by Korda
Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick is best known for elaborate work inspired by the Irish Celtic artistic tradition. But his most famous single piece is his iconic two-tone portrait of Che Guevara created in 1968, based on a photograph by Alberto Korda. The black and red screen-printed poster version was produced after Guevara’s death in October... [Continue]
1972 - Bloody Sunday – January 30, 1972
Iconic moments in history: Stanley Matchett captures an image of Bishop Edward Daly carrying a blood-stained handkerchief ahead of the body of Jack Duddy, who was shot dead in Derry on Bloody Sunday. The stories behind this and other images from the period are explored in Tom Burke’s acclaimed documentary ‘Shooting the Darkness’. A book... [Continue]
1985 - Young family, Dublin, July 1985, by Steve Pyke
Can you help identify the young family in this photograph, taken in Dublin by photographer Steve Pyke in 1985?
1990 - Tony O’Shea’s Dubliners book is published – solo exhibition at Gallery of Photography on Wellington Quay
A legendary figure in the context of Irish documentary photography, O’Shea’s book Dubliners occupies a pivotal role in the history of Irish photography and defines the territory that O’Shea made so inimitably his own – the everyday life of ordinary people, their joys and sorrows, their struggles and triumphs, the rituals that they use to... [Continue]
1992 - Source publishes its first issue
Source is a major photographic journal based in Belfast. They published their first issue in 1992. The journal has a strong legacy of engaging with the most important debates in contemporary photography, through extensive portfolios, features and critically engaged reviews. It has long been supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in recognition of... [Continue]
1994 - Sean Hillen produces his collage series Irelantis
Sean Hillen’s Irelantis takes a surreal and irreverent look at the mythologies of modern Ireland, mixing the familiar sights (and sites) of tourist postcards with the fantastical, revealing the strange in the seemingly ordinary. See more of his work here.
2002 - Richard Torchia transformed the Gallery of Photography into a giant, walk-in camera
American artist and curator Richard Torchia’s installation ‘Architectural Optics’ turned the Gallery building into a giant, walk-in camera, where visitors could see a vast upside-down view of the scene outside. Deceptively simple, the work had a hypnotic, even hallucinatory quality. The work was made in collaboration with John Tuomey of O’Donnell & Tuomey, architects of... [Continue]
2005 - Anthony Haughey’s Disputed Territory awarded the international Leopold Godowsky Jr Photography Award.
Irish photographer Anthony Haughey’s long-term project Disputed Territory investigates the aftermath of recent conflict in Europe, including Kosovo, Bosnia and Ireland. The award-winning series culminated in 2006 with a major international touring exhibition and publication. Besides large-scale colour photographs, Disputed Territory includes a series of interventions using found photographs, and a sound/video installation piece, Resolution.... [Continue]
2011 - Noel Bowler’s series Making Space
Noel Bowler’s Making Space series looks at how the Islamic community in Ireland has adapted existing locations for the purposes of prayer and religious observance. Bowler’s contemplative pictures give a unique view of the intersections between faith and place in a rapidly changing Ireland. See more of the project here. Image courtesy the artist.
2012 - Sebastião Salgado exhibited his ‘Amazon’ series in Dublin
For his Amazon project, Sebastião Salgado travelled the Brazilian Amazon for six years and photographed the unparalleled beauty of this extraordinary region: its forests, rivers, mountains and peoples. In 2012, Gallery of Photography Ireland hosted the world premiere of this acclaimed body of work which was accompanied by a programme of education activities promoting conservation... [Continue]
2014 - Eamonn Doyle publishes his first photobook, i
Eamonn Doyle’s first self-published photobook i marked his return to photography after a successful career in music. Made in Dublin city centre the work was a startling new development for the tradition of street photography. It created a sensation in the photobook world, lauded by Martin Parr, among many others. i marked the start of... [Continue]
2014 - Dragana Jurišić publishes her book YU: The Lost Country
Born in the former Yugoslavia, Dragana Jurišić is an artist living and working in Ireland. Her project YU: The Lost Country retraces the journey of writer Rebecca West across Jurišić’s former homeland in the 1930s. This subtle work considers the experience of exile and how national histories intersect with individual lives. Jurišić’s personal reflections appear... [Continue]
2015 - Ciarán Óg Arnold wins the Mack First Book Award
Ciarán Óg Arnold received this award from the international publisher Mack for his photobook entitled, I went to the worst of bars hoping to get killed but all I could do was to get drunk again. The title is taken from a poem by Charles Bukowski. Arnold’s darkly expressive study of the lives of young... [Continue]
2018 - Diane by Mandy O’Neill
Mandy O’Neill’s practice draws on themes of youth, adolescence, and education, with a particular emphasis on portraiture. In the last number of years she has undertaken extended artist residencies in both schools and institutions. Her work engages with the physical and psychological space of these environments, coupled with the interplay of people and place. It... [Continue]
1983 - Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland’s dedicated photography gallery is established.
Founded in 1983 by Danny Burke and a group of local photographers as a challenge to media representation of Belfast’s experience of conflict, Belfast Exposed is Northern Ireland’s dedicated photography gallery. Located in the city’s ‘Cathedral Quarter’ since 2003, it continues to reflect a socially engaged ethos, while responding to contemporary currents in photography and... [Continue]
1953 - Macroom Photographic Services opens in the back of Dinneen’s bar.
Dineen’s Bar, Macroom, Co. Cork For three decades, Dennis Dinneen provided photos for passports and driving licences, took individual and family portraits, and captured images of the bar’s patrons. Developing his skills as a photographer outside the studio, he also photographed weddings, religious ceremonies, theatre productions, sporting events, and a variety of other local occasions.... [Continue]
1952 - Henri Cartier-Bresson comes to Ireland
Acclaimed Magnum photographer Henri Cartier Bresson comes to Ireland on assignment for Harper’s Bazaar magazine.
1932 - Quinn family, Waterford celebrating the Eucharistic Congress, 1932
Although the major gatherings for the Eucharistic Congress took place in the capital, communities around the country also found inventive ways to celebrate. Image: NLI POOLEWP3922
1878 - Edweard Muybridge pioneer of high-speed photography
Animal Locomotion : Eadweard Muybridge uses a row of cameras with trip-wires to make a high-speed photographic analysis Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) was one of the most influential photographers of his time, and is best known for photographing horses in motion – proving for the first time through high-speed photography that all four hooves leave the... [Continue]
1871 - Thomas J. Wynne advertising his Photography Studio and Shop, Main Street, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
Thomas Joseph Wynne (1838-1893) was an American-Irish photographer and shopkeeper. In 1867 he established a successful photographic studio in his shop on Market St. Castlebar, Co. Mayo. As this fascinating self-promotional image attests, Wynne was involved in photography at all levels – taking portraits and commissions, copying manuscripts, as well as selling fine art reproductions... [Continue]
1870 - The Dillons of Clonbrock were so keen on photography that they had a studio and darkroom constructed on the grounds, known as the “Photo House”.
Luke Gerald Dillon, 4th Baron Clonbrock (1834 – 1917), and his family in front of the ‘Photo House’ in Clonbrock, County Galway, Ireland. Dillon was an Irish peer. In 1865, he was appointed High Sheriff of County Galway. He married Augusta Caroline Crofton, daughter of Edward Crofton, 2nd Baron Crofton of Mote and Lady Georgina... [Continue]
1867 - John Gough and Mary Gough, outside their shop on Eustace Street, Dublin
The image is certainly taken after 1865 as the goods on sale include stereoscopic views and photographs of some of the works of art at the Dublin International Exhibition of that year. A wonderful image from the Collection of the Society of Friends.
1858 - Ireland is home to the Grubbs, one of the world’s leading optical instrument makers
Thomas Grubb , 1800-1878, and his son Sir Howard Grubb, 1844-1931, were Irish engineers who manufactured many optical and metal devices, particularly in the field of astronomical instruments. Thomas was a keen photographer and a founder of the Dublin Photographic Society in 1854. In 1858 Thomas obtained a patent for a new lens design called... [Continue]
1853 - John Shaw Smith, ‘St Doulough’s Church, near Coolock, Dublin’
One of the rare images made by John Shaw Smith in Ireland shows his interest and skill in architectural photography. St. Doulough’s Church is one of Ireland’s architectural enigmas. According to Peter Harbison, it “presents more puzzles per square foot than any other building of comparable size in Ireland” {Studies, Spring 1982}
1851 - Frederick Scott Archer publicises the ‘Wet Collodion’ process
Frederick Scott Archer’s Wet Plate Collodion process was the first practical photographic process to be both sharp and easily reproducible. It combined the clarity and detail of Daguerre’s unique images on silvered metal plates, with the practical convenience and reproducibility of Fox Talbot’s positive-negative calotype prints on paper. It also enabled photographers to significantly reduce... [Continue]
1846 - Henry Fox Talbot set up the first photographic printing firm
The widespread distribution of large editions of photographic prints was the promise of Talbot’s negative-positive process and its principal advantage over the contemporaneous French daguerreotype. In early 1844, in an effort to encourage the mass production of paper photographs, Talbot supported Nicolaas Henneman, his former valet, in the creation of the first photographic printing firm,... [Continue]
1844 - Irish Poet Thomas Moore, photographed by his neighbour Henry Fox Talbot with members of the Talbot family at Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire.
Irish poet Thomas Moore, photographed by his neighbour Fox Talbot at Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire. The distinctive curls identify Talbot’s half sister Henrietta Horatia Fielding standing to his left. Eliza Frayland, the nursemaid at the far left, had come into the family’s employ with the birth of Charles Henry Talbot in 1842. Arranged in the front... [Continue]
1844 - Lithograph of Daniel O’Connell, based on a daguerreotype
As the daguerreotype process creates only one unique image, it was not easy to make multiple copies. One could take a daguerreotype of the original but this was expensive and not easy to produce in large quantities. For this, lithography or engraving was used, as in this portrait of Daniel O’Connell engraved by Johann Stadler... [Continue]
1844 - Only surviving photographic image of Daniel O’Connell
This image forms part of a set of daguerreotypes of O’Connell and the so-called ‘Repeal Martyrs’, including Thomas Matthew Ray, secretary of the Repeal Association, and Charles Gavan Duffy, one of the founders of The Nation and a member of O’Connell’s Repeal Association. These striking likenesses were taken while the men were incarcerated in rooms... [Continue]
1843 - Anna Atkins makes the first book illustrated with photographic images
Anna Atkins (1799 – 1871) was an English botanist and photographer. She is one of the earliest recorded women photographers. She adopted John Herschel’s cyanotype process to make a series of studies of algae. In 1843, she self-published her photograms in the first installment of Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions in October 1843. Although... [Continue]
