Point of Departure...Another Year

This little series is part of the ongoing ‘The Photo Course’ project, which explores the enviornment of a Photographic Course in Dublin.Part of this work reflects on the ‘void’ that I experience every year at this particular time, when I say goodbye to another group of students that I have worked with in the college.

There is a sense of vacancy throughout. In the last couple of years, on the final day of college, I have become accustomed to the ritual of ‘hanging around’ – waiting until everyone has left the building and I have an overwhelming feeling of being alone. It provides some space – to think, to reflect and to photograph. I contemplate the year(s), the people, the conversations, the activities and the struggles of the preceding months. The natural thing for me to do, at this point, is to photograph. The approach is studied - meditative, maybe. The physical surroundings and minutae within it are photographed when it is bereft of the energy and synergy of students and tutors. There is always, in my mind, the reality of times relentless melt - the passing of years and the subtle changes to the environment left by the transience of people. Thus, the work speaks of ‘detachment’.

The work is also about subtle and ephemeral micro-events which happen in the duration of a day, a week, a year, which become part of the history of the building. As we move forward we create and we construct. We develop and perform ideas and discourse physically in and on the environment. We shape that environment through our mental and physical interactions, day upon day, year upon year. We also destruct. Destruction is part of the creative process. In my practice I have always been attracted to subtle traces of destruction, be it in this project or other projects (Note to self: Perhaps it is the balance of construction and destruction, the cycles of each, that are the core of this and other work).

The act of photographing these traces, these physical detachments, this gentle destruction, actually helps me to grasp and ‘possess’ the illusive feelings and losses that I experience at this time. Photography becomes a kind of meditative process, a process which helps me to psychologically bridge these transitions (Note to self: Is it all about loss?) It speaks to me, in a profound way, of a certain reality of these transient, ephemeral relationships which are built year upon year between myself and my students and, in a less profound way, of the relationships between (photographic) discourse, practice and the environment (of photography).

Generation to Generation (Ongoing Work)

“No past, no future, no, not even a present, there was’nt even a memory"

Hubert Selby Jr.
Song of the Silent Snow

‘Generation to Generation’ (proposed title) is a complex exploration the relationship between myself and my rural background, my sense of heritage and the obligation of tradition connected to the landscape. I have been exploring that delicate and uncomfortable balancing-act between belonging and disassociation. I find myself longing to connect, or reconnect, to the place or with the landscape. Yet, the overriding impression or feeling is one of ‘distance’.

“…and living roots awaken in my head"

There are virtues which ennoble the rural character, at least to those of us who have grown up with the conditional rhetoric of ‘The Land’ ingrained into every part of our individual and collective psyche. These virtues of labour, of heritage, of tradition; of generational cycles, of possession, of culture and the preservation of each, give the landscape a value and a meaning beyond its physical state. On the outset, I am not questioning these virtues or these traditions - I value them beyond reason.

I see my ‘role’ as someone who can (visually) express something about the nature, the complexities of generational gaps, the complexities of a sense of heritage - which is bound by head, by heart, by tradition, to feel an obligation to the landscape.

It is easy to say that I am a typical example of my generation who has turned his back on rural life and is, in a very insolent manner, betraying my heritage. I am aware of these perceptions. I have heard all the local mutterings I can stomach. Yet, this does not scratch the surface of the complexity of the condition. Yes, there is a lingering sense of guilt in breaking inherited traditions of farming, of labour, of connection. But this is ‘the condition’ that I have the absolute necessity, above all else, to explore. This is my impulse, this is who I am.

I consider, to sidetrack a little, John B Keanes ‘The Field’ – where the darker side of this attachment is acted-out in a malevolent and eventually violent way. Through its main character – ‘The Bull McCabe’ - there is a stubborn assertion of selfhood and identity, through ownership, which leads to the act of murder of one man by another - both of whom have competing claims to “The Land”. The larger questions raised, for me, by this powerful work are interesting ones: is the culture of ‘The Land’ in McCabes world psychologically corrupted through this necessity of ownership and is it essentially worth preserving. In a sense, this question expresses something dark, petulant, unnecessary with the ideology of attachment. There is a glorification of sacrifice – sacrifice of morals, of friends, of family, of community, of reason, to hold onto and assert ones heritage; which at times is imaginary. The brutality and assertion of fixed beliefs, of loyalty to these ideals, open up questions of what we have become and of the darker side of possession and tradition. This ‘darker side’ is not one I wish to explore at this point, yet, I concede does exist in my world in various manifestations.

I feel I am working with, and exploring, a ‘real’ psychological condition that exists with many of my generation of rural people who, possibly, do not feel the necessity or sense of connection with rural life or with the world of their father. Heaney, Kavanagh amongst others have expressed this condition and this complexity with words. To express it visually allows for me a re-negotiation of, not just self, but of the density of the photographic language. I concede that photography is a limited form of expression. We rely on surface - on grain, and how we use it determines the meaning we are trying to communicate. Just as the feelings and emotions can not manifest themselves within any ‘pallette’ of given words – guilt, responsibility, hatred, revulsion, love, freedom, possibly. Close. I am also limited to the expression of these complexities through visual means – through the camera. Here, the sensations manifest themselves within a whole new syntax: guilt, aperture, insecurity, exposure, framing, anger, light, focus, love, tripod.

Visually, the latest direction of my work has a strong sense of atmosphere and an aesthetic I am trying to push – the aesthetic of whiteness (its colour photography, as close to Black & White as possible – or simply ‘White’ photography?). This is, for now, a winter project. In this particular body of work, the whiteness of the landscape, for me, fits perfectly with the sense of detachment, with capturing the landscape at a point in its seasonal cycle when it has its least growth, its least value. At this moment, I feel a freedom of the correct expression of the condition I want to explore – no past, no future, no memory, no pathos, no nostalgia - just there, dealing with the emotion and non-emotion of the ties that bind. I cannot make sense of the landscape in any other way. I cannot make sense of a reason to photograph the landscape in any other way. I also cannot make sense of the ideology of the virtues of rural life as ‘grounded’ above the virtues of other ways of life, nor of the necessity to repress an artistic spirit and my personal sense of the absolute value and necessity for expression in opposition to this way of life. They co-exist in my world. This expression is located somewhere deep within contradictory impulses – the need to create and the need to bow to tradition, the need to be there and the need to escape, the need to be self-determining and to be my fathers son. I feel that the work comes from a place – a territory that is physical and emotional. It comes from the inside of this place. One conclusion could be read is the re-assuring fact that I have a deep attachment to this place, to what it means and to expressing this through the only means I know how.

For now, I work on the land in this way, for now.

Approaching the Theme of Utopia

The following samples of work were presented in the Reflexions Masterclass forum during the Mois De La Photographie in Paris (Nov 2010). One of the challenges of participating in such an event is the heavy demands to create, prepare and present work on a specific assigned theme within a very short period of time. The pressure to create is largely accredited to the knowledge I have of the intensity of the experience of these presentations and the presence of such esteemed and informed artists and guests, with whom I have to share my work. It is daunting and testing; but stimulating and energizing at the same time. One of the benefits of such a thematic task is the possibility (at times necessity) to change and alter ones style, approach or direction, for instance. It also encourages, for me, a type of re-negotiation of self – provoking questions of exactly what ‘type’ of photographer I have become and how I have allowed myself to become this way.

With the thematic works there is also the opportunity to investigate or develop a previous subject matter or project. My starting point for the theme ‘Utopia’ was a ‘mini-project’ that I worked on in 2004. The work as a whole, at the time, was ‘thin’ to say the least. I didn’t fully understand the topic, or indeed photography to any great degree. But, I liked to (try to) make disconcerting photographs at the time and was starting to think about using the camera to respond to real social conditions. For the purposes of the RM, I decided to expand on this project in the context of the specific conditions of today.


Utopias’ are generally ‘models’ proposing an alteration in reality or ‘models’ to understand reality. These conceptual models propose invented places - places constructed in the imagination. In this case, constructed in an ideal future. This connection with an imaginary and an unattainable social condition is inescapable. This reality/imaginary duality can help to devise a useful categorization of a central feature to the theme itself and an interesting point of departure for what would be considered a side-project for the moment. My concentration is on places which are surrounded by a certain utopian trope – advertising hoardings and images which project an ideal futuristic environment. However what is presented is the failure of Utopia. Damaged hoardings surrounding abandoned environments in Dublin, Netherlands and Morocco. (Note to Self: The diversity of location is something worth persuing?)


Notes: One thing is undoubted: the camera creates its own reality, regardless. My intention is to re-inforce the sense of the imaginary. This sense of confusion is an important sensory strategy to represent this theme – introducing a more dynamic and playful focus, use of colour, etc. It was/is important to keep my ‘personality’ within the work, but, perhaps transform my ‘palette’, if you like, perhaps reinforce more energy, more visual stimulation. The subject demanded a suitable approach, yet, still contain a similar vision which is consistent with my ongoing projects. (Nov 2010)

Some Recent Works

Suspended State (September 2010)

In, Around and Afterthoughts: On ‘Suspended State’ (September 2010 )

'I live my best in the landscape, being at ease there' - John Hewitt, Poet

‘Suspended State’ has charted the topographical changes which have occurred in Ireland over the last 6 years or more – from the height of economic activity (and its effects on the landscape) right through to recession times (and the visible effects on the landscape). Throughout the process of developing this work, there has been a necessity to consciously, and un-consciously at times, adapt an ever-changing approach to suit an ever-changing landscape.

My intention has always been to ‘express’, somehow, the sensitivity I feel and experience when drifting around these changing landscapes; to offer a fresh perception and visually react to that special connection to landscape that I feel. I have always had an impulse to do this work (I am guided mainly by my impulse when it comes to photography). My impulsion to work, and the ‘ease’ I feel when working has become my raison d’etre over the last number of years. I have never really understood why. I have been told that it has to do with loss (I have experienced loss in its various forms throughout my life, and, yes, this makes sense). It has been suggested to me that it also is my way of connecting to that which I feel disconnected to – namely the landscape and a need to feel a compensatory attachment to it (yes, given my rural background, this also makes sense). But, I try not to delve too much into the latent reasons and internal motivating factors behind my work.

However, there comes a time, when at mid stream, that you need to check how fast the water is moving. As I now enter, as I do every year at this time, a period of relative hibernation, and concentrate on re-directing my energy and focus onto teaching life and shift emphasis for a while onto my students work again. With 50-odd in first year and 38 in second year I am feeling anxious and uneasy at the prospect of not finding a calm balance, amid the caos of college life to contemplate and reflect on my own work with a clear and lucid head-space. This is especially difficult in a place where there are heavy financial, spatial and other limitations placed on a handful of tutors to deliver as much as they can in a short period of time.

So as I set about fitting my teacher-head again, I am at the realization that this current cycle of work with what has come to be titled ‘Suspended State’ is coming to a necessary end. However, I am in a most positive frame of mind. I have been lucky enough to find ‘that place’ a number of times recently and come to several fresh understandings about the whole journey and process of dealing with the project as well as deciding on a few directions leading to, hopefully, some closure and an exhibition of the work in the near future.

Visual Notebook
I have started to keep a visual diary again for this work. This was something I used a lot in college and something I encourage my own students to do. Ideas evaporate. The diary is a collection of ongoing notes, ideas, sample images, drawings, sketches, similar artists’ work, proposed exhibition plans; scribbles, doodles and coffee rings. It is the physical manifestation of the ongoing thought process, which facilitates the conceptualization of the body of work up to that point, and has helped me to find direction for that process. It gives me something tangible to sit with – on busses, at breakfast, at work - with which to consider approaches and ideas. It has become my external brain to an extent and something which I feel is an integral part of how I work (below are some Samples of Pages and Selected notes)

Issues of Audience (Diary Notes: July 2010)
I have settled on some issues of ‘audience’ that have been bugging me for some time. By ‘audience’ I am alluding to the ‘ideal viewer’ which, as Jeff wall suggested, exists in the mind of every artist. For instance, if the work is trying to express a social issue, that audience is a large segment of society; if it is conceptual art, then maybe a more art-savvy, informed and discerning viewer. Issues of ‘elitism’ abound, I have discovered that my work, while to some extent is open-ended when it comes to what any given individual can ‘get’ from the work, has got an ‘ideal viewer’. This is evident in my decision process thus far, as I have become more and more submerged into the work (Note to self, June 2010: “I have also to question whether people see this project solely as social commentary when frankly I do not?”) I have to acknowledge that my work was not about the recession, not about the landscape, not about social conditions, not about the economic conditions, not about documenting what is simply there. It is, at some levels all of these things. But, at its very essence, my work is also not about these things. It was and is, however, in its very nature, about one thing – its about ‘photography’! It was and is about my own explorations of photography – about changing approaches, about forcing a certain vision that I hope to me my own, about finding the right expression to suit the ‘aura’ of the landscape; it was about consciously adapting my approach to an ever-changing landscape which would somehow ‘express’ the social, cultural and economic condition or ‘state’ of my country as reflected in the landscape. It is a complex interplay between subject and that subjects representation. I feel I used the landscape, the economic reality of that landscape, to explore photography. My audience are people who may recognize and identify with this. Maybe?.

Abstract Documentary (Diary Notes: July 2010)
Another question to be grappled with is: How far abstract can one go and still remain documentary? What may seem a contradiction in terms is something I like to explore. In fact at the last meeting of Reflexions Masterclass, director of the European House of Photography Jean-Luc Monterosso commented that this approach was a nice ‘hook’ throughout my work which ‘pulled and pushed’ the viewer in extreme ways. The lack of sense of scale needs, at certain points, to be ‘grounded’ in reality. Yet, not too much. (Note to self: should the tripod, when visual in the picture, be in the same position every time?)

Rhetoric, Document and Lunar Landings (Diary Notes: Sept 2010)
There is a rhetoric of ‘suspension’ implicit in many of the images (the title itself suggests a country in a condition of economic immobility). There is also in parts the perception that one is ‘suspended’ – hovering, floating, hanging over these landscapes – where there is no real sense of scale or size; where there is a disconcerting lack of contact with the physical and with the real (Note to self: Can this express anything about the psychological condition of the present?) There is also a visual rhetoric of ‘exploration’ in some of the images – one is, hopefully, subtly reminded of the visual iconography of lunar landings and visually connect the terrestrial ambiguities presented in here (Note to Self: Why this approach?)

Closure!?!
This particular cycle of work is coming to a necessary end. I am struggling to bring a sort of closure to this project. The reality that this does not suit a book format, that it is most effective when printed large and experienced in a gallery context, is a positive realization for me. My plan is to find out-of-gallery locations to exhibit (perhaps empty shop units, factories, or maybe a one night exhibition in the darkness of an abandoned estate in Longford, for instance). I am unsure at this point about the financial realities that may thwart my wild ideas, but, its worth a shot. I feel the work is at its most relevant right now and it needs to be shown. I may need help! Any sympathetic philanthropists out there take note.

'Postcards From The Celtic Tiger' - Xuhui, Shanghai July 2010

POSTCARDS FROM THE CELTIC TIGER confronts the radical contrasts resulting from massive shifts caused by the economic boom to the recent downturn, presenting a collective vision of contemporary Ireland through visual art.

Using photography, video and sound to challenge stereotypical metaphors relating to Irish landscape, or employing collage and digital imagery to respond to recent changes, the artworks range from the satirical to a subtle, visual poetry. Also included are pieces utilizing strong documentary practises and found footage reflecting current events and trends in Irish society, from the Peace Process to youth culture.

Postcards from the Celtic Tiger is made possible with support from Culture Ireland, Cork City Council, The Irish Embassy in Shanghai China, the Culture Bureau in th Xuihui district, Sirius Arts Centre, Cork Film Centre and the Arts Council. . This exhibition is the next chapter of important cultural twinning activites between Cobh, Cork City and the Xuhui Disctrict in Shanghai, China. The exhibition links in with other outside events connected to Expo 2010 currently taking place in Shanghai. For more informaiton please contact: Peggy Sue Amison at: psamison@yahoo.com or: 087 633 1974.