Photography

My Way

Interpreting the word ‘invisible’, a word commonly used by older people about their place in society, is the basis of this body of work. In particular, I am looking at the area of fashion and whether fashion abandons older people or older people simply abandon fashion.

Evolving from an ethnographic approach, the work spawned a few threads from the original idea, which was that each person will put him or herself forward to reinterpret a fashion shoot from Vogue and other fashion magazines. The idea of self-image and coming to terms with aging through the mirror emerged through group discussions, along with the participants being portrayed in their own fashion, as themselves.

A short film ‘Where Do You Think You’re Going?’ was also made, which documents some of these personal thoughts on growing older with fashion.

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Photography

Wearing Purple

This is a story about growing old. It is a story of a small village in Co.Donegal, in the North West of Ireland and of some of its inhabitants; the people photographed are adults from my childhood. It is a story about their perfectly normal lives photographed in their perfectly normal homes.

The subjects range from 65 to 98 years of age – the eldest in my hometown and include my secondary school principal, the lady who taught me the accordion, the postman who was simply called ‘John The Post’, my very first teacher and some neighbours that I have only recently come to know.

Each subject stares into the camera under an artificial light holding the cable release that runs back to the camera, each in control of their own portrait.

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Photography

Domestic Bodies

The sublime and the beautiful, terror and harmony, and the pleasure of looking. This work was inspired by the writings of Edmund Burke and cinematic techniques.

Through the use of windows, doors, light and model’s undress, I have attempted to construct a series of moments; of quiet scenes, uncertainty and vulnerability.

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Photography

Gubu

GUBU of 1982, reappears in the climate of 2009. This project began as a personal projection of my own experience with the Irish economy and Irish politics. I adopt the persona of Gubu the clown, who explores the new landscape of Ireland. Gubu stumbles in search for something through desolate and destructive landscapes. Confused, dazed and in a hurry to rid himself of the surroundings he inhabits, he reflects on how he got himself into this mess and how he will get himself out.

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Photography

Rear View Mirror

As well as taking note of the rolling taxi meter in South American multicoloured taxi’s, it is hard not to notice their rear view mirrors and what is hanging from them. Some are decorative, some are religious and some are playful. Very few are bare.

These photographs were taken across South America in 2008 and 2009. The variety of items dangling from mirrors would depend on what country you were in. Parts of North America ban anything hanging from the rear view mirror. This little trait enjoyed by these taxi drivers however was an enjoyable fixation to witness and in doing so, recorded footprints of the beautiful South American continent.

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Photography

AKA

Our birth name is very much part of our identity, of who we are. The majority of us take this for granted. In early 2000, I began noticing a lot of immigrants who were working in Ireland using Western names over their birth names.

I sought some of them out and photographed them in their place of work, and I asked them why they had changed their name.

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Photography

A Male Gaze

Loosely based on the idea of the sneaky look, the voyeuristic look: where it is neither known nor returned. Male figures are cropped to sometimes an unrecognisable form: their hands, arms, torso or crotch being the focus of attention.

The concept focuses on the fetish instead of the actual person, where identity is unknown and unimportant.

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