The annual PhotoIreland festival moves to May this year. Under the ever watchful selection eye of Angel Luis Gonzales, it continues to focus on showcasing and celebrating the best of Irish and international photography providing a platform for enthusiasts and practitioners.
Its two keynote exhibitions are Michael Iwanowski’s Clear of People which retraces the 2000 mile journey of his grandfather who escaped Soviet captivity in 1945 and Steven Nestor’s Bellum et Pax which unearths images of everyday life in Germany imbued with an ordinariness which jars with the historical context we know surrounded them. (Tara Building)
The New Irish Works series continues with Robert McCormack & David Thomas Smith, Junior Magazine launch their ‘Freedom’ issue (Library Project) and there’s an open call exhibition on The Recount of Conflict (Pallas Project), Jens Sundheim’s Of Ants and Star Polyhedrons which looks back at the Ruhr University which was initially deemed ‘the university of the future’ before being dismissed as an architectural failure (Marsh’s Library) and 22 photographs from another open call for Regarding the Hispanic World (Instituto Cervantes).
We take a closer look at some of the aforementioned highlights here while Ellius Grace and George Voronov of Junior Magazine talked us through some of the photographers they are featuring in their Freedom issue:
Andrew Rankin – Real Life Superheroes
We love this image. The project is based around people who take it upon themselves to improve their communities and dress up to do so. The images in this project are fantastical but the story and message is very real, and this image really exemplifies that contrast.
Matt Glover – Where Elephants Go To Die
Matt’s photography is full of energy and youth, but it is tinged with a dark side which really brings levity to his vision. This image of a car doing donuts in a field is both strong in aesthetic and evocation of feeling. We have been using it on most of our promotional material as we think it resonates strongly with our approach and the theme of this issue: Freedom.
Holly Foskett – Proof
This project is probably one of the most personal projects in the magazine. She uses found objects and images to tell a story about her family. This image is of an old photograph from her childhood which has been obscured by the photographer’s thumb, presumably a parent.
Therese Rafter – Corral
Therese’s style is so strong and clean, and her project Corral explores an important theme of commodification and the food industry. Every image in the project is strong and we’re very happy to have her on board.
Further details at: festival.photoireland.org
