L'Absinthe, 1876, by Degas
L'Absence, 2012, by me
Which makes the heart grow fonder?
For Oliver
Oliver Stanley was a beautiful man, and a really great friend to me. He died, aged forty-one, on this day in 1995. Remembered with warmth, much love, and this dedication.
He’d be pretty tickled to know I was posting a picture of his arse to the entire world, all these years later. There’s a portrait of him in this gallery.
Flattery in Paris
We saw these two walking towards us, and I said “He must be in love”. “He must have done something terrible”, replied Nicole.
I first met Nicole Flattery when we were both in the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris, and was really impressed by her clever and funny short stories. We did a portrait in the centre that became the author photograph in her new collection, which was given a rave review ("a highly addictive mix of deadpan drollery and candour") in the Guardian yesterday.
Nicole Flattery in Paris, 2017.
There are more portraits of writers in this gallery.
Lisbon?
About eighteen months ago I had a screenplay to finish and wanted to go somewhere warm, cheap and interesting* to get it done, and Lisbon sounded like it would be just the place. It didn’t happen in the end, but I did get to visit for a couple of days last January and very nice it was too.
*When a friend from Northern Ireland overheard what I was looking for, she couldn’t stop herself blurting out “Then why on earth would you move to Lisburn?”
A Mother Brings Her Son To Be Shot
“One night, Majella O’Donnell brought her son Philly to be shot in both legs”. So begins this week’s episode of An Irishman Abroad, featuring journalist and film-maker Sinead O’Shea telling the story of how she came to make the feature documentary “A Mother Brings Her Son To Be Shot”.
Director Sinead O’ Shea, photographed in my Dublin studio last year.
Quiet Places
I’ve just begun a new writing project.
The Image You Missed
Donal Foreman’s “The Image You Missed” is a really interesting essay film about his relationship with his estranged father, Paris-based documentary maker Arthur MacCaig. I saw it last year in The Pompidou Centre, and asked Donal to sit for a portrait the next day. We met at the cafe in the 5th Arrondissement where he last saw his father, who died in 2008.
As I was shooting, a man who looked like Arthur MacCaig passed by in the background.
“The Image You Missed” screens this evening at the Odeon Point Square Cinema in Dublin, as part of the Five Lamps Arts Festival.
Rouen
What have you got to say for yourself?
I shot these portraits of Margaretta D'Arcy and John Arden for a piece on married couples in The Sunday Telegraph Magazine. They refused on principle to appear in the same picture as they weren't actually living together. Margaretta filmed me as I photographed her, and when we were finished took me up to the attic where there was a tangle of wires hanging from a bare bulb in the ceiling. She flicked a switch, thrust a microphone at me and said "You are now broadcasting live on the world's only Irish language, feminist pirate radio station - what have you got to say for yourself?" Not a lot, as it turned out.
Low!
“You look like the kind of people who probably bump into each other a lot...maybe at the same library” - Alan Sparhawk of Low, nailing the audience demographic at last night‘s gig in Rouen.
Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker
I’ve loved Low’s melancholy songs, distorted guitars and eerie harmonies for some time, so it was a real treat to get to see them live.
Steve Garrington
They didn’t disappoint, with this being a highlight of the evening.
Never too loud
Teeth solo!
Here’s my favourite song from their new album, a classic, and a great cover.
Goodnight Normandy!
Loss in London
Friday was supposed to be Brexit day. I took the train to London to see “Grief is a Thing with Feathers” at the Barbican. It was extraordinary. I walked through London the next day, and it has its own sense of loss at the moment. You can feel it.
Trans / Punk
I shot some portraits recently of Irish transgender people for Michele-Ann Kelly’s Transition, Family and Me project. When Sarah R Phillips and I started talking about music it turned out we’d both been to many of the seminal punk gigs in Dublin. I asked if she’d seen the legendary Slaughter & The Dogs play in Belfield, and she told me not only was she there, she still goes to see them every chance she gets. Respect.
Today is the International Transgender Day of Visibility.
A History-Making Nerd
Liz Carolan is a self-confessed data and transparency nerd. In 2018, she set up a project to bring transparency to online advertising in Ireland’s referendum on the 8th amendment which banned abortion. That project led to a change in policy by Facebook and Google, and prompted commitments by the Irish Government to reform electoral regulations. Reading about her work makes it even more obvious that treating social media, particularly Facebook, with an ever-increasing degree of scepticism can only be a good thing. See also: T-Bone Burnett’s incendiary keynote from SXSW.
I photographed Liz last week in the new Fumbally Exchange, Dublin 8.
A different kind of portrait
Sometimes something very different comes along, such as the couple of times I’ve been asked by friends with cancer to help make a record of their experience. One such friend asked me recently to photograph her lumpectomy scars, and we were both very happy with how the pictures turned out. I’m also very glad to say that she’s doing well now, after a gruelling round of treatment. To be asked to do something like this feels like a real honour.
What's Wrong With Dreaming?
River City People promo video for 'What's Wrong with Dreaming?'
I barely had a clue what I was doing. Talking to Jarlath recently reminded me of this promo, my very first outing as a lighting cameraman. It came out alright, though- I think wobbly cam was a thing back then. I connected with Siobhan again years later, and we got to hang out in Nashville when I was there to shoot a portrait for the So Far book.
Saw a great comment on the Youtube video, which I just had to respond to…
An Irishman Abroad
Paris Brûle...
…well, it was when I took these photographs during Act VIII. There was an escalation of violence last week, but so far today’s protests (Act IXX) have been a lot calmer. A lot of people here feel it’s time to give it a rest, and XX is such a nice round number…
30 Hours in Dublin
A quick visit, but I was able to see something I often pine for when I’m in Paris.
I also got to pick up the Irish edition of Nicole Flattery’s new book, which I’m really looking forward to reading. Nicole is a brilliant, seriously funny writer. I met her shortly after arriving in Paris, and we did some portraits in the Centre Culturel Irlandais that have become her author pictures.
There’s another portrait of her in the ‘Writers’ gallery which is being used as the author picture in the UK edition of the book. It’s out today - highly recommended.
Happiness, a day late*
Better than no happiness at all...
*yesterday was the International Day of Happiness.
Cuban Love Songs
One of the photographs from a piece I did on Havana for the Irish Times is being used in this forthcoming anthology of Cuban poetry, designed by my sister’s company Kate Horgan Bespoke Books.
The rest of the Havana pictures and the article can be seen here.
