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About 10 years go I came across this photograph. The caption suggests that it was taken during the Famine of 1845-9 in Ireland. It wasn’t. True, it is very similar to the scenes recorded in cabins throughout the west of Ireland and graphic illustrations of such scenes were published in illustrated newspapers at the time. There is no record, however, of any photograph of people dying of starvation in the 1845-9 famine. Indeed a photograph like this would have been impossible in the early stages of photography – invented less than a decade before the famine. As a result he photograph has been dismissed by some people as a fake, the harsh pool of light suggesting a studio staging.
I set out to look for the original and test its authenticity. I never found it, but I found the next best thing – the original document in which the photograph was first published. The photograph is entitled ‘A Sick Family Carraroe’ and is one of 18 photographs that were published in a pamphlet entitled ‘Relief of Distress in the West and South of Ireland, 1898.’ The photographs were taken in April during an inspection of conditions in Connemara by Thomas L. Esmonde, Inspector of the Manchester Committee. He was reacting to reports of famine in Connemara, what locals call the Second Famine or Gorta Beag. He inspected a dozen houses in which he found people lying on the floor, covered with rags and old sacks and barely able to move from a combination of influenza and hunger.
The search for the photograph became the basis of an idea for a TV series on social documentary photography or, to put it another way, a social history of documentary photography in Ireland in the 19th century. I pitched the idea to a producer and a broadcaster in 2011 and funding was eventually secured from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland in 2014 for a six part series based on my research. TG4 will begin broadcasting Trid an Lionsa or ‘Through the Lens’ tomorrow Sunday 25 October 2015.
I haven’t been involved in in the production itself, just the research into historical social documentary photography and the people who work in this area. This material has been “translated into television” by Cathal Watters (Oíche na Gaoithe Móire) and follows the TG4 controversial format of presenter driven, on-the-road info-tainment. (Lost in Translation).
I have no idea what to expect. Like a colleague I will be watching from behind the couch … hoping! It’ll be interesting to see how the balance between a social history of documentary photography and ‘factual’ entertainment works out. The reliance on off-the-cuff interviews rather than scripted narrative is a risky business in general Read Full Article. It suits some formats but I don’t know about a documentary on 19th century photography, with it’s intricate social, political and historical contexts and plots. I know some key “voices” were excluded but that is the unenviable task of a producer. Dropping a key commentator on the history of photography because, apparently, there were already enough English speakers is a bit odd though. Either way it promises be an intriguing televisual event and, at the very least, it should create an awareness of the rich resource that exists in photographic archives and collections around the country.
For more images / Comment see: Ballymaclinton, The Town that Time Forgot
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Jocelyne Dudding, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge and Ciarán Walsh of www.curator.ie in the foyer of the British Museum in London.
It’s a big claim, but papers presented by Jocelyne Dudding and Ciarán Walsh at the Anthropology and Photography conference in the British Museum (May 2014) have challenged the chronology of the early development of British anthropology and Haddon’s role in it.
Dudding and Walsh have been working on the ‘Haddon In Ireland’ project for the past 6 months, focussing on photographic and manuscript collections that are held in Cambridge – in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA), the Haddon Library and the University Library.
They presented preliminary finding of their research at a conference organised by the Royal Anthropological Institute and the British Museum. The research, part funded by the Heritage Council of Ireland, is part of a project that is attempting to reconstruct the archive of the Irish Ethnographic Survey of 1891-1903.
The photographic record of the the Survey, the photograph albums of Charles R. Browne, were published by www.curator.ie in 2012 as part of the the ‘Irish Headhunter’ project. The albums are held in TCD but there was no trace of any paperwork that could place them in context. The search moved to Cambridge and significant work has been done in the photographic collections of the MAA and the Haddon Papers in the Haddon and University Libraries there.
Preliminary findings suggest that the Survey, established by Haddon and Cunningham in TCD in 1891, played a much greater role in Haddon’s transition from Zoology to Anthropology than had previously been thought. The photographic record, correspondence and journal entries reveal a lot about Haddon’s role in the survey with significant implications for the history of the early development of anthropology.
These are being teased as the ‘Haddon in Ireland’ project continues with the re-construction of the archive of the Irish Ethnographic Survey.
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mountainsphoto.ru
Ár Ré-Na (Our Times) is an exhibition of paintings by students of Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne in Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland. The students are studying art as part of their senior cycle programme (5th Year) and the exhibition consists of a series of self portraits developed through a photographic project and realised in a wide range of media. Each portrait is an intensely personal expression of how they ‘see’ themselves but, collectively, they provide us with fascinating insight into the world of a group a group of 16 year old student artists living in the west of Ireland. The exhibition was opened at the end of May by Seán Mac an tSíthigh, filmmaker and journalist with RTE and TG4. It is on view during school hours.
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Ár Ré-Na
Taispeantas Scoláirí Ealaine, Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne,
An Daingean
Á oscailt ag Seán Mac an tSíthigh 21.05.2014
Téacs / Text__________________________________________________________________
An dteastaigh uait riamh tumadh isteach in inchinn an déagóra?
Bhuel, seo é do sheans.
Beidh saothar scoláirí ealaíne na 5ú bliana ar taispeáint don phobal ar a 6 a chlog ar an gCéadaoin an 21 Bealtaine le tacaíocht ó Creative Engagement. Tabharfaidh an ealaín a bheidh ar taispeáint léargas ar phearsantachtaí, ar fhéiniúlachtaí agus ar shaol inmheánach na n-ealaíontóirí óga.
Osclóidh Seán Mac an tSíthigh an taispeántas. Is scannánóir áitiúil agus iriseoir le RTÉ agus TG4 é Seán. Is cinnte go mbeidh tráthnóna suimiúil ann a thabharfaidh spléachadh dúinn ar shaol cruthaitheach an déagóra.
Have you ever wondered about the inner workings of a teenage mind?
This is your chance to find out.
Fifth year art students of Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne are hosting an art exhibition of their work in the school ‘Dánlann’ exhibition space, opening on Wednesday the 21st of May at 6pm. The work exhibited is an expression of the personalities, identities and inner world of student artists. The exhibition will be officially opened by Seán Mac an tSíthigh, local filmmaker and journalist with RTE and TG4. It is sure to provide a rare glimpse into the creative world of the teenage mind.
Bígí linn. Fáilte roimh cách.
_________________________________________________________________________________
A thuilleadh eolais le fáil ag / For more information please contact:
Brenda Ní Fríghil, Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne
fón: 066 9150055;
ríomhphost: pcd07@eircom.net
nó neasa09@pcd07.ie
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Фуразолидон
A major feature by Ciarán Walsh on local elections 2014 in Ireland is published in the Irish Independent Weekend Magazine edited by Katie Byrne. The article looks at young candidates who are competing in the elections for he first time and questions whether this is a response to widespread disenchantment with the political establishment and, whether a new generation of politically smart young people can challenge the status quo through the use of social media and other techniques. The article is based on ten interviews carried out 2 weeks prior to the election and was published the weekend before voting takes place.
Jpeg of the feature writen by Ciarán Walsh for the Irish Independent Weekend Magazine, edited by Katie Byrne.
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Ciarán Walsh at work in the Manuscripts Room in the Library. He is surrounded by documents from one of the files containing uncatalogued material dating form the early 1890s when Haddon was active in the Irish Ethnographic Survey 1891-1903.
'Haddon in Ireland.' is a research project that is trying to piece together the archive of the Irish Ethnographic Survey 1891-1903, a project being developed in association with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge and National University of Ireland Maynooth. The initial research in Cambridge has been funded by the Heritage Council of Ireland.http://rpk-tramplin.ru
Walsh recently spent ten days going through uncatalogued material relating relating to the Survey in the photographic collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology as well as the manuscripts in Cambridge University. Working closely with Dr. Jocelyne Dudding (Manager of the photographic collection), Aidan Baker (Haddon Librarian) and John Pickles (former Haddon Librarian) Walsh discovered a lot of material – photographs and manuscripts – that shed a lot of light on the administration of the survey and the early development of ethnology in Ireland in the late 1880s and the early 1890s.
The results will feature strongly in a panel on Haddon and the Survey which has been organised by Walsh, Dudding and Dr. Mark Maguire of NUI Maynooth as part of the Royal Anthropological Institute’s conference on Photography and Anthropology which is taking place at the end of May.
