Photography as Witness
Power, Resistance & Propaganda

In Ireland, photography was quickly adopted by the state and added to its systems of surveillance, particularly for mugshots of criminals and political prisoners. At the same time, it was used by Victorian scientists as a means of classifying perceived racial types, linking ideas about deviance to the national character. 

However, power and authority were also questioned and resisted through images. Campaigners such as the National League deployed photographs of evictions and appalling living conditions to contest official narratives of ‘innate’ Irish criminality and violence.

More traditional markers of power and privilege are visible in the albums of the elite, both gentry and professional. The camera, then, is never an impartial witness to history. Instead, it reveals a far more complex relationship between different points of view, where the truth is often hard to see.

Image: Leon Gluckman William Smith O'Brien and Thomas Francis Meagher, photographed in either Kilmainham Gaol or Clonmel Gaol, 1848
KMGLM.05PO-1H41-03
Courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum/OPW

Fianaise na Griangrafadóireachta
Cumhacht, Ceannairceacht agus Bolscaireacht

In Éirinn, ghlac an stát an ghriangrafadóireacht chuige féin go sciobtha. Baineadh leas as sa chóras faireachais, ag tógáil portráidí de choirpigh agus de phríosúnaigh pholaitiúla go háirithe. D’úsáid eolaithe comhaimseartha í freisin chun léiriú a dhéanamh ar na tuairimí a bhí acu faoi rangú na gciní agus faoi charactar náisiúnta. 

Ag an am céanna, bhí grúpaí ar nós an National League in ann íomhánna a úsáid chun cur i gcoinne na n-údarás. Cheistigh siad an tuiscint oifigiúil ar choirpeacht ‘dhúchasach’ na nGael tré phictiúirí a thógáil de dhíshealbhuithe agus de chúinsí uafásacha maireachtála. 

Tá cumhacht de short níos traidisúnta le feiceáil sna halbaim a chruinnigh an élite, tiarnaí talún nó daoine proifisiúnta. Ní fínné neodrach atá sa cheamara, dá bhrí sin. Nochtann sé gaolta casta idir thuairimí éagsúla, áit nach bhfuil sé éasca fírinne lom amháin a fheiceáil.

Éireannaigh Óga. William Smith O’Brien, ina shuí, agus Thomas Francis Meagher ina sheasamh idir bheirt garda príosúin ag Príosún Chill Mhaighneann, Baile Átha Cliath, sular díbríodh go dtí an Tasmáin iad, 1848
Le caoinchead Iarsmalann Príosún Chill Mhaighneann / OOP

Fenian political prisoners, including some of the leaders of the Fenian Brotherhood and its Irish wing, the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, November 1866Pages from the ‘Larcom Album’ show photographs of untried prisoners - suspected Fenians including Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa - that were taken in Mountjoy Gaol, Dublin in 1865-6. O’Donovan Rossa (lower right) wrote about this portrait being taken. He described how he was positioned in front of the camera with a pasteboard pinned to his chest, and jocularly added of the photographer: ‘he never had the manners to tell – what artists never failed to tell me – that I made an exceedingly good picture.’ The album from 1866 (and the previous one from 1857) originally belonged to Sir Thomas Aiskew Larcom, the permanent Under Secretary for Ireland, from 1853 to 1869. MssCol 1694, Courtesy The New York Public Library

Príosúnaithe polaitiúla Fíníneacha, in éindí le roinnt de cheannairí Bhráithreachas na bhFíníní agus a eite Éireannach, an Bráithreachas Réabhlóideach Éireannach.

Léiríonn leathanaigh ón ‘Albam Larcom’ grianghraif de phríosúnaigh nár triaileadh fós – daoine le hamhras Fíníní orthu, Diarmaid Ó Donabháin Rosa ina measc – a glacadh i bPríosún Mhuinseo, Baile Átha Cliath in 1865-6. Scríobh O’Donovan Rossa (ag bun ar dheis) faoi ghlacadh a phortráid féin. Rinne sé cur síos ar an gcaoi inar cuireadh os comhair an cheamara é le cairtchlár greamaithe dá bhrollach, agus dúirt sé maidir leis ngrianghrafadóir: “Ní raibh sé de bhéasa aige a rá liom – an méid a deir ealaíontóirí liom i gcónaí – gur cruthaigh mé pictiúr den chéad scoth”. Ba leis an Ridire Thomas Aiskew Larcom, Fo-Rúnaí buan na hÉireann (1853-1869), an albam seo ó 1866 agus an ceann roimhe ó 1857. MssCol 1694, Ón Leabharlann Phoiblí Nua-Eabhrac