This August one of my images from Ethiopia will be hanging in HOST gallery in London as part of Foto8 Summershow. The image, of a father and daughter threshing wheat using donkeys was taken in January 2010 in Addei, Northern Ethiopia. The Summershow -an annual even which kicks off wit a big street party- features over 150 photographs and takes place throughout August and all the prints are for sale. This August one of my images from Ethiopia will be hanging in HOST gallery in London as part of Foto8 Summershow. The image, of a father and daughter threshing wheat using donkeys was taken in January 2010 in Addei, Northern Ethiopia. The Summershow -an annual even which kicks off wit a big street party- features over 150 photographs and takes place throughout August and all the prints are for sale. 
The latest issue of the online photography magazine 100Eyes features photographs on the theme of "Home". Amongst the work of 9 other photographers, the current issue features my work from the Shadowlands series I am currently shooting on the empty housing estates and mansions around Ireland. many thanks to Andy Levin for choosing the work and for curating the magazine. Enjoy leafing through it!
Tomorrow night I'm heading to Portlaoise to open an exhibition of photographs by John Lalor at the Aras an Chontae. "Third World Eyes" is a photographic journey across three continents that John embarked on in 2008. John was a student on my documentary photography course in April 2010. He brought his portfolio into the Gallery of Photography on the first night and showed some images that will be appearing in the exhibition. The photograph of the little girl from a village in Nepal was the one I remembered the most. Despite her dirty face and scruffy hair, she is still beautiful in her little pink dress. Nothing, not even poverty can take that away. I thought of Steve McCurry's Afghan girl and told John about his work and his book South Southeast which I remember saving up the money to buy almost (gulp!) ten years ago. I took it back down from the shelf the other day and remember how I was mesmerized by his perfect composition in the photograph of the fishermen from Sri Lanka, by the decisive moments he captured in so many of the images like the doves outside the mosque in Mazar-e Sharif in Afghanistan or the man in Agra standing in a stream with water falling from his hand into a spectacular reflection of the Taj Mahal. Then there were the colours, those colours that only come out after rain, especially in Jodhpur, never did chili pepper red and sky blue go so well together. I wish John every success in his photographic career and hope he never has to sew rolls of film into his clothes as he negotiates unsafe borders in dangerous places.
The DCU student magazine "Flashback" popped through my letterbox today thanks to Claire Brown. I answered a few questions for her some weeks back about being a photographer, how photojournalism has all changed, changed utterly and recounted some of my African experiences. Not least of which was getting detained in the Democratic Republic of Congo by those charming fellows at the ANR (Congolese Secret Police) on arrival in the country alone one rainy November night. For my students, past, present and future, Claire asked me about advice for young aspiring photojournalists. So, I'll repeat it here just for you guys "Photograph what moves you. Come up with an idea for a long-term project, keying off something that's personal to you and that you care about. This way, you will shoot with a passion and a purpose and this will show in your images. Build up a relationship with your subject and develop your social skills. Get inspired by looking at the work of photographers you admire in books, on websites etc. Photojournalism won't make you rich but if you are happy to be fulfilled on a personal and professional level, then don't give up"
One of my ghost estates images features on the front of Guardian G2 today. The feature is Ireland's Shattered Dreams. Inside, there is a double page spread of the horses outside an abandoned house in Leitrim. They were beautiful horses, like those ones of our childhood dreams, you know, that whisk you away somewhere better. White Beauty. The one on the left was very curious and kept coming towards me, he was trying to sniff the camera. So, I let him. Then he gently tugged at the strap. The house, somebody's abandoned hopes and dreams. There were building materials gathering dirt, workers overalls on the ground, a fireplace with no hearth in a room with no view, but for hilly mounds of unkempt wild grass.
Summer 2010 is apparently going to be a scorcher. In an Irish context, this means temperatures may reach an ice- cream melting 25 degrees. I live by the beach so I'm making regular trips down there over the next while with the camera.. let's just see what happens.. On Sunday, I saw three volleyball nets in the sand.. loads of people being active, messing around, having fun. I used to bring my dog down for walks in summer until he stole somebody's ham salad roll out of their hand. Embarassing. But now its all BBQ's and fancy chilled picnic boxes. It was great listening to Evelyn Cusack delivering the weather forecast on Friday, "warm, dry and sunny" with a great big smile, like she was giving us a lovely gift. Thanks Evelyn. May it continue into June and beyond.
On May 15th, The Financial Times magazine featured a cover story on the economic situation in Ireland. I have been photographing some of Ireland's ghost estates particularly around the midlands and the Shannon region and some of these images featured in the story.
Here are some images photographed by students who participated on the first documentary photography course in the Gallery of Photography. What a time we had... from "Yer Wan In Da Windah", a curious reportage about the statue of the white lady on the rock who looks out through the windows of houses, particularly around Crumlin to "Angels Plot", a gentle and poignant study of the graves of over 50,000 children who were buried in Glasnevin cemetery, we had a really interesting selection of stories that students chose to document for their projects. There were also documentaries on a yoga practitioner, an artist moulding a strange looking punk fish out of clay and a haunting set of images documenting Dublin as a city of blinding lights... Well done to all who participated.. note:copyright is belonging to each photographer.. anybody know how to customize this for individual images on photoshelter, please let me know. kh
In January, I was in South Wollo in the Amhara region of Northern Ethiopia to photograph women for the upcoming "Women of Concern" exhibition which takes place in the Gallery of Photography in Temple bar from 4-21st March. I met Zinet on the last day of shooting. Zinet's life was already predetermined in birth. Betrothed as an infant, she was abducted and forced into an early marriage last year. Her father was arrested and accused of organising the abduction. The entire ordeal has torn a close-knit family apart.
Continue reading Women of Concern Photo Exhibition »
From February 2010, I will be teaching an Introductory Course in Documentary Photography at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin. Courses for February and March are sold out but we will try to do more later in the year as there has been quite a demand for places. Being in the business for over ten years, it's exciting now to be in a position to pass on some of my knowledge and experience as a working photographer in the field, to share some of the crazy stories the scary situations and hopefully be an inspiration to others who have an idea for a photo story or a dream to be a documentary photographer.
Continue reading A Lesson in Documentary Photography »
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