Traveller wellbeing through creativity project

Chapter four of Photo Museum Ireland’s year-long In Our Own Image exhibition programme, Photography & the Social Gaze, is a landmark survey which undertakes a critical reframing of the way Irish life has been represented through photography. It explores how photographers have used their medium to reflect on immense social change in Ireland over recent decades.

A collaboration with the National Museum of Ireland, this exhibition is part of the Museum’s contribution to the Decade of Centenaries commemorations and is part of In Our Own Image - photography and Ireland 1839-now, a year-long centenary programme surveying the role of photography in recording, representing and shaping Irish cultural identities.

Photo Museum Ireland is delighted to present The Light of Day - the first retrospective exhibition of acclaimed Irish artist Tony O’Shea. A legendary figure in the context of Irish photography, O’Shea’s work occupies a pivotal role in the history of documentary practice in Ireland. Curated and produced by Photo Museum Ireland, this retrospective exhibition brings together for the first time his seminal bodies of work - The Hill, Dubliners, Bird Men, Turkey Markets, Drag Hunts, Border Roads, Ways of the Cross, Italia 90 and Never Forget series together with his more personal images of his late father.

In Our Own Image: Photography in Ireland 1839 to the Present survey exhibition charts how the medium has both reflected and shaped Irish cultural identity, from the work of the earliest photographic pioneers up to the emergence of a recognisably modern state.

The Politics of Place is a landmark survey exhibition that undertakes a critical reframing of the way Irish life has been represented through photography. It addresses how photographers have engaged with one of the defining obsessions of our national identity – the notion of place.

PROTEST! looks at the vital role photography has played in recording and making visible the struggle for equality, diversity and inclusion in Ireland. Over recent decades we have witnessed unprecedented change with systemic inequalities challenged and, in some cases, overcome. This social revolution has encompassed a broad spectrum of local and national issues, from civil rights, political struggle and conflict, women's rights, LGBTQIA+, institutional abuse, social and economic issues, Travellers’ rights, through to international movements for change, including anti-war, climate change, Black Lives Matter and #MeToo.

The Photo Album of the Irish digital archive project celebrates the ordinary and extraordinary histories of people with Irish heritage around the world. The Photo Album of the Irish: Canada edition reflects the deep, enduring connections between Ireland and Canada. This publication includes images from the 1860s right up to the present, giving an authentic view of diverse Irish emigrant experiences across Canada. Collectively, the photographs reveal the stories people chose to remember and celebrate in their own lives.