Two babies sit in a pram in the lower left corner of the image, with one looking toward the camera, and one facing away. In the background, a butchers window.
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Alen MacWeeney

Alen MacWeeney (b. 1939) is an internationally renowned photographer, currently based in New York. At 16, he was given his first job as a press photographer at The Irish Times. Richard Avedon later hired MacWeeney and brought him to work in both his NYC and Paris studios. MacWeeney soon became impatient with the limitations of studio photography. He traded in his 120 camera for a new 35mm Leica, and began honing his skills in street photography.

In this period, he pursued personal projects, creating dark, expressive, and empathetic images of the people and landscapes of Ireland, including a ground-breaking series on Travellers. MacWeeney’s archive was recently acquired by University College Cork. His works are featured in the permanent collections of many prominent museums such as MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago and others.

Artist Projects

Untitled, from the series Dublin, 1963
  • Two babies sit in a pram in the lower left corner of the image, with one looking toward the camera, and one facing away. In the background, a butchers window.

    Alen MacWeeney, Untitled, from the series My Dublin 1963 // My Dubliners 2020, Photo Museum Ireland, National Photography Collection.

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Alen MacWeeney's Book
  • Black and white image of a book cover showing the branches of a tree with young people standing on the large branches.

    My Dublin 1963, My Dubliners 2020 by Alen MacWeeney

About the book

In September 1962 Irish photographer Alen MacWeeney returned to Dublin from a year in New York, working for the acclaimed photographer Richard Avedon. Equipped with a 35mm Leica camera, he went onto the streets of the city to engage with life directly as he saw it. Almost 60 years later, during the pandemic lockdowns and isolation of 2020, that we all experienced, MacWeeney’s photographs of Dublin 1963 were shared by his partner, Pesya, with a group of online Dubliners.

The result was a virtual explosion. An instantaneous torrent of observations, comments and opinions filled the screen. As more photographs were posted, the online community scrutinised every incidental detail. Responses bristled with Dublin humour. The people and locations that MacWeeney had captured were recognised and disputed. Discussions and recollections drew in multiple participants, the online exchanges eliciting wonder, incredulity, nostalgia, warmth – and sometimes anger. This previously unseen series of photographs had come to life again in the unexpected confinement of a pandemic to grace a multitude of new lives through a bond of shared interest and humanity.

Now all photographs in the series have been published with a selection of these online comments by the community in a book by Alen MacWeeney entitled, My Dublin 1963, My Dubliners 2020. The book is about the power of photography in creating a conversation that unites the community, and transports the viewer back to another life. It is local history. It is about life in a Dublin of the past being brought back into the present in 2020 by today’s Dubliners, “straight from the horse’s mouth”.

For MacWeeney, “Reading the reaction of Dubliners in lockdown to seeing the people or places they knew as children, – mothers and fathers, relations and friends, coming or going to work, playing in the streets, or on a date, waiting for the bus, or just being there as I was at the time, was electrifying; a pure joy to read their responses.”

The Alen MacWeeney Archive is held by University College Cork.

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