Heroes and Villains

It’s great to see when somebody I’ve done a portrait of is in the news for all the right reasons.

There’s a video of the rescue here, and you can follow Tom here.

There’s a video of the rescue here, and you can follow Tom here.

Tom Kennedy, photographed in Dingle for the So Far book. More pictures here.

Tom Kennedy, photographed in Dingle for the So Far book. More pictures here.

Sometimes it’s for other reasons, however.

Rolf Harris photographed for the New Musical Express, 80’s.

Rolf Harris photographed for the New Musical Express, 80’s.

Try as I might, I couldn’t get past his well-worn cheeky chappie persona. Then I asked him to take off his glasses. There was only a brief moment before he put them back on and started gurning again, but it was long enough to see a very different side of him.

“There is a Jekyll and Hyde nature to Rolf Harris”- Sasha Wass QC, during Harris’s trial.

Lian and Grandad at the Glucksman

Lian in the Glucksman yesterday, photographed by her proud father.

Lian in the Glucksman yesterday, photographed by her proud father.

Congratulations to my sister Lian, who has some of her work in  The Glucksman gallery in Cork as part of their current group exhibition, “The Parted Veil”. It's made up of photographs she took of our grandparents' belongings in 2002, along with text from interviews with some of the family at the same time, and is up till the 28th of June.

A couple of years ago I was asked to contribute two portraits for the cover of the Hothouse Flowers album “People”. The first person I photographed for it was my grandfather.

Tim O’Driscoll, from the Leaders gallery

And the other person I photographed was Lian.

Lian Bell, also in the Leaders gallery

Lian Bell, also in the Leaders gallery

Trois Mecs à Paris*

*Or as one of my sisters put it, “OMG where are you getting these absolute rides”, but I don’t know how to say that in French.



Living your best life

Filmmaker Audrey O’Reilly photographed in Paris, May 2019.

If I haven’t shot your author/contributor/profile photo, I’m sorry but you’re just not living your best life. Be more like Audrey.

Life under ground

Clare Langan in Paris

Clare Langan photographed in Paris, May 2018.

Clare Langan photographed in Paris, May 2018.

Video artist Clare Langan is a national treasure, and I was very glad to get an opportunity to photograph her in Paris last year. I’d already seen her piece that’s currently in the Moving Woman show at La Galerie Danysz, but I went to see it again on Saturday. It’s so beautiful.

Galerie Danysz

Galerie Danysz

You can see other portraits of artists in this recently updated gallery.

All photographs are accurate

Richard Avedon photographed by Irving Penn on August 23, 1993

Richard Avedon photographed by Irving Penn on August 23, 1993

“A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth. ”  Richard Avedon

“Though the session didn’t last longer than twenty minutes, I will forever remember the feeling of standing barefoot in that light-filled room while Avedon apologetically tilted his head toward the lens I kept ignoring, as if the camera were a socially inept friend that the two of us needed to make concessions for”. Myla Goldberg on being photographed by Richard Avedon.


Me and the Da

John Horgan

I had a quick dive into the archives when I was back in Dublin, and came across this portrait I made of my father to accompany an interview in Cara magazine about one of his books. It’s one of my favourite pictures of him, along with this one:

Me and the Da

Me and the Da

You can see other portraits of friends and family in this gallery.

The Ma and MacWeeney

Alen MacWeeney was my mother’s first boyfriend, but the relationship didn’t last after he moved to New York to become Richard Avedon’s assistant. He went on to have a stellar career as a photographer there, often coming back to Ireland to shoot a long-term project on the travelling community. I bought one of his prints of two traveller kids with the proceeds from the first script I ever sold, and it’s up in pride of place on the living room wall.

Alen MacWeeney photographed in Dublin, April 2019.

My mother Sara, aged 18, photographed by Alen. He added the image of himself looking at her and sent it from New York.

It was great to catch up with him when I was back in Dublin last week. He told me about the new biography of Avedon, saying “it reads like a thriller”. I’m halfway through its 700 pages, and he’s not wrong.

You can see some of my other pictures of artists in this gallery.

RIOT!

RIOT is a truly amazing show, filled with hope, love and revolution. I’ve seen it twice, and if I was in Ireland this week I’d go and see it again. The show has been on a sell-out world tour and is back to do a short run as part of the Dublin Dance Festival - get a ticket while you still can (available here).

It was a lot of fun doing these promo shots in Hang Dai, Dublin. Poster design, art direction, digital alchemy and general Pantification by the ridiculously talented Niall Sweeney.

You can see more of my pictures of performers in this gallery.

I'm a creep

When I first met the wonderful Helen Sloan, she told me that all photographers are creeps. I was a bit taken aback, but she’s right - photographers want to see without being seen, to capture things that wouldn’t necessarily happen if people were aware that we’re there, quietly shooting away. Just as when this sleeping man caught my eye at Le 104 the other day, though I was quickly outcreeped by his girlfriend Agathe, who snuck in for a close-up. She’s also a photographer, of course.

Paris is Peeling

Some paint peeled away from the wall yesterday on Rue Denoyez, giving an idea of just how long this street has been a favourite gallery for Parisian graffiti artists. It really is a great city for all kinds of street art, and you can see more in my Paris feature for Cara Magazine here.