Brian Newman – Association
In-conversation event & publication launch

 Join us for the official launch of Brian Newman’s new publication Association, published by Photo Museum Ireland.

To mark the occasion we will be hosting a special in-conversation event with the artist and Colin Graham, Professor of English at Maynooth University. They will discuss the genesis of the project, the thinking behind it, and the process of producing this beautiful new publication.

Photo Museum Ireland 30 November at 6.00pm
Admission free, all welcome

Brian Newman’s Association is a long-term study of Orange Order Lodges across Ireland’s border counties. The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland is a Protestant fraternity founded in 1795. It is pledged to uphold and propagate the Protestant Christian faith within a broader, increasingly secular and diverse European island. Association considers the remoteness and isolation of border Lodges where diminishing numbers of Lodge members secure the fraternity’s ageing meeting places. 

With Association Newman focuses on the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland as an institution that exists within the divide of Irish and British identities. These sensitive images show an organisation that is in some ways deeply embedded in local communities and in others increasingly isolated, a sense of which is conveyed by the spaces within the Lodges themselves. 

Newman has built relationships for over a decade with his subjects and this is reflected in the access he has been given to individual Lodges and their members. This timely, new publication presents a portrait of the Orange Order that seeks to go beyond stereotypical representations to reveal a more nuanced and considered perspective. 

Artist Biography:
Brian Newman is a photographer and videographer. He was born in Belfast and studied at Ulster University, graduating with a BA (Hons.) Visual Communication.  In 2016, he was awarded an MFA in Photography. His work has been widely exhibited as part of Photo Museum Ireland’s five-year Reframing the Border programme.  This programme was supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs Reconciliation Fund and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, organised in partnership with the Nerve Centre and the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny.

Professor Colin Graham Biography:
Colin Graham is Professor of English at Maynooth University. He is the author of Northern Ireland: 30 Years of Photography, published by Belfast Exposed and the MAC in May 2013, Deconstructing Ireland (2001), Ideologies of Epic (1998) and was co-editor of the Irish Review from 2004 to 2020. Colin writes on literature, photography and culture. He is curator of the Illuminations Gallery at Maynooth University.

This project has been supported by the Arts Council, the Arts Council Northern Ireland, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and Photo Museum Ireland.