Imprints: Photography as Practice
22 February – 16 March 2024
Launch Thursday 22 February 6.00pm
Exhibition tour with featured artists and curators.
Gallery 1
Featuring a diverse range of artists, Imprints gives an insight into the practice of photography in Ireland. It presents photographic works supported and produced as part of the new Artists' Development programmes offered by Photo Museum Ireland over the last twelve months, including recent additions to our Archive of Irish Contemporary Photography.
Reflecting the dynamic culture of contemporary photography in Ireland, the artists address important social issues from distinctly different points of view. Their work represents important thematic developments in contemporary Irish photography, encompassing a wide range of approaches to the medium, from prints and installations to artists’ photobooks. Throughout there is a concern with place, home, identity, and cultural memory that touch on some of the most pressing concerns in contemporary life.
Leon Nevill Gallagher, Untitled, from the series Cargo.
This exhibition and its accompanying programme offer an insight into the practice of making photographic artworks, including development, production, and public dissemination. Providing a platform for open dialogues around creating strategies to support photography as an artform, sustaining innovative practices, and creating artistic legacies for the future. Imprints highlights the importance of developing comprehensive ecosystems that support artists to manage their practices and ensure an archival trace of their creative work remains for the future.
The works were produced through our new Artists’ Development programmes, devised to offer structured support to artists at all stages, from recent graduates to more established names, through to the acknowledged masters of Irish photography. The support includes mentorship, training, production, and promotion for our Early Career, Development, Diversity, Exhibition and Archive residencies. The participating artists have been selected by Photo Museum Ireland’s curatorial team with our international panel of advisors.
With our development programmes and artists’ archive initiative, we are articulating a critically engaged vision for the future of Irish photography. Imprints is an opportunity to present this ongoing support for the most cutting-edge photographic practices. This exhibition and its accompanying programme form part of a vital conversation around how we sustain innovative practices in Irish photography and create legacies for the future.
GALLERY 2
Photo Museum Ireland is delighted to present a selection of images from I Could Read the Sky, the landmark ‘photographic novel’ by Steve Pyke and Timothy O’Grady. First published in 1997 and recently reissued in a new, expanded edition by Unbound, it has been widely hailed as a classic. This hybrid work traces the experience of Irish emigration through O’Grady’s prose and Pyke’s strikingly evocative images. Pyke made his first pictures in Ireland in 1980 and this exhibition reflects his deep, ongoing association with a place central to the development of his artistic practice.
Featured artists: Ciarán Óg Arnold, Caleb Daly, Ciaran Dunbar, Tatiana Evonuk, Jordan Hearns, Sara McCarroll, Leon Nevill Gallagher, Brian Newman, Tony O’Shea, Rachel Philpott, Steve Pyke, Shannon Ritchie, Luke Ryan.
Engagement events
Towards a Sustainable Darkroom: Experimental Alternative Process Workshop with Aindreas Scholz
11.00am – 4.00pm 24 February Cost: €150/ €135 members
Alternative photographic printing practices are experiencing a significant come-back, both due to their appealing visual qualities and to the fact that they are more sustainable and environmentally friendly. During this full-day workshop, tutor, and researcher, Aindreas Scholz, will introduce you to one of the earliest and latest camera-less photographic printing processes and practices, cyanotype, while also incorporating sustainable materials. This workshop is for either beginners or intermediate learners who wish to develop their alternative process skills with a strong focus on Fine Art (e.g. composition, exposure, and image editing). Learners will be taken through the historical, technical, and creative aspects of this fascinating process, with an emphasis on making the darkroom a more sustainable space, based on the tutor’s own ongoing research.
MONOGRAPH Photobook development review session
11am –2pm Saturday 09 March 2024
A half–day review session for artists who have photobook projects in development. In these friendly informal sessions, artists will gain invaluable insight into how to move their projects forward from our team of experienced curators and photobook experts. These sessions are free to attend but places are strictly limited and booking is required.
Banner images: Shannon Ritchie, Untitled, from the series Home / Sick, 2023.