Inchicore Bus stop
On my way to St Michael's Estate for another batch of photographs of the utopian waste land, I walked past a bus stop on Emmet Road, in Inchicore. This set up of the old woman in a bright red coat, a young girl, boy and a young woman was too good to be missed. While three of them were distracted by the approaching bus only the girl caught me standing across the road with a camera pointing straight at them.
I took this photo with my digital camera and somehow it always flattens the background. I love taking photos of people with it because somehow it is like they are standing infront of a flat background like actors on a stage playing their part.
I took this photo with my digital camera and somehow it always flattens the background. I love taking photos of people with it because somehow it is like they are standing infront of a flat background like actors on a stage playing their part.
St Michael's up close and personal
The Promised Land
Walking through St Michael’s estate in Dublin is like taking a tour through a utopian wasteland. The deserted concrete towers are now populated by hundreds of pigeons which fly in and out all day long like ravens circling over a medieval castle. It’s quite possible that the derelict buildings still house a few junkies though I can’t imagine anyone, no matter what state they’re in, being able to live in this place. Mind you I have never had the nerve to actually venture inside one of these buildings. There is something positively intimidating about them. There are photographs of smiling people adorning the wall of the biggest building, as if to serve as a reminder of the perhaps well-meant but entirely misguided intentions behind the construction of these monstrosities. I can’t imagine living there was ever much fun. Kids still hang out in the playground between the buildings and in a strange way the estate towers over Inchicore like a monument.
Howling at the moon in Inchicore. May 2011
A full moon night
This photo of a full moon may not be the most breath taking image ever captured but try standing down the end of Jamestown Road in Inchicore, opposite the Black Horse Inn, at midnight with a bloody expensive camera mounted on a tripod. For that alone I think it deserves to go on this blog. The big moon was absolutely stunning veiled by wisps of clouds. I first saw it walking home from a restaurant down in Inchicore village behind lots of old buildings but unfortunately I didn’t have my camera on me so I rushed home to get it. Only 15 minutes later the moon had travelled an unbelievable distance, so the photo I first saw and wished I could have taken was long gone by the time I got back, which was a pity.
Oh Diana!
I have fallen in love with a camera and it's a stormy affair. I had been eyeing these plastic cameras, basically cheap replicas of already cheap cameras that stopped production in the 70s, in Urban Outfitters in Templebar. One day the temptation became too much and even though I knew I could get the same camera in the Photography Galley nearby for much cheaper, I couldn't wait any longer. You see, I was never in Templebar when the gallery shop was still open. So I went ahead and splashed out an unbelievable 66 euro on a very cheap Hong Kong produced plastic manual camera called Diana. I scrambled off into a nearby cafe to immerse myself in the manual and load my first film. To spare you the boring details, the bloody thing worked for one film and then tore all the next ones. But after seeing the first film developed in all its cheap 70s glory I fell in love. I knew I'd get hurt, there was no two ways about it. I would scream in frustration when the next three films tore, angrily toss it aside only to pick it up again and plead with it before obsessively disassembling, assembling, disassembling and assembling it again, hoping to somehow make it work. But I was hooked and would give my right arm for more of those awkward, sun burnt little photos. Alas, in the end we had to part. I brought Diana back to the shop where I got her. If I was composed and calm then only because I knew I was not really letting her go. I had already made plans to head straight over to the Photography Gallery to buy another Diana... a better Diana, one with a flash. And altogether it would be no more expensive. I had no guarantee that Diana II would show me anymore love than Diana I but I figured I'd take my chances. So there I was pressing my nose against the glass behind which my new Diana stood winking at me. Diana II and I left the shop a few minutes later and I have no regrets. Though a little shy at first, she tore one or two films, we soon settled into a mutually loving relationship and she never fails to pleasently surprise me. Long may it last...
Lines and Spaces
I know somebody who is obsessed with lines. Apparently some people see absolute beauty in the order that lines can give. Incidentally, he is also one of the least orderly people I know. So here are some lines that I thought were quite sightly.
People and Buildings
On a cold drab day sometime not long before Christmas 2010, Dublin was covered in snow, or more appropriately, sludge. Not far from my house in Inchicore I photographed this little girl walking into the petrol station in her pyjamas for some shopping. She was so young but her demeanour made her seem like a miniature adult.
Image number eight in the slide show isn't the most obvious picture to love out of this selection but the woman in the photograph, holding her baby, struck a nerve with me. In a cold and perhaps 'hostile' environment she is clutching her child and she seems a long way from home.
Image number eight in the slide show isn't the most obvious picture to love out of this selection but the woman in the photograph, holding her baby, struck a nerve with me. In a cold and perhaps 'hostile' environment she is clutching her child and she seems a long way from home.
Dublin in Spring
Last year, 2010, I ventured out to take some photos with an old manual camera. In Smithfield I saw some Roma girls playing and when they spotted me taking photos the girl in the red hoodie asked if I would take a photo of her. The other one was very shy and didn't dare ask but I could see she wanted to be photographed too, so I asked her instead. I love these photos, especially the one of the second girl because I see her shy happiness shining through in it.
