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From Derry Girls to Irish Travelers: Photo Stories from Ireland
In this collection of photo stories from Ireland, Megan Doherty introduces us to Derry’s underground scene, while Kevin Griffin captures the life and character of a man he serendipitously met while driving through the local Irish countryside.
Jamie Johnson tells the stories of children from within the Irish Traveler community, a community that continues to face discrimination and abuse. Meanwhile, Enda Burke gets creative with his parents during lockdowns, and Jill Quigley brings abandoned cottages in Donegal back to life.
Megan Doherty captures the experiences of real-life Derry girls in the 21st century.
“Days in Derry are long. There’s not a whole lot to do except hang out, wasting time,” Doherty says of the Irish town where she spent almost her entire life. Stoned in Melanchol is her ode to the place where she grew up, a neon fairytale starring her friends as heroines. Making pictures was, as she puts it, her ‘form of escape.‘”
Next up in our photo stories from Ireland: Kevin Griffin documents the life of an extraordinary man he serendipitously met while driving through the countryside.
“Spotting a hitchhiker on the side of the road, Griffin offered a lift to Pascal Whelan, a former world-renowned stuntman and contemporary hermit. Their brief journey resulted in a burgeoning friendship and Griffin began visiting Whelan at his home of solitude on the tiny Omey Island just off the Galway coast in Connemara.” Measuring approximately one-square mile, Griffin says that during the mid-19th century there were almost 400 people living on the island—today the population stands at one—Whelan himself.”
Jamie Johnson tells the story of children growing up within the Irish Traveler community, who adhere to a nomadic lifestyle passed down between the generations.
“Johnson first gained access to the Irish Traveller community through the children. They were intrigued by the artist and her camera, and quickly, they accepted her as ‘the crazy American photographer.’ Once the young people trusted her, the adults followed.”
The Irish photographer Enda Burke collaborates with his parents to create vibrant, surreal tableaux.
“Someone recently asked me if I took a bunch of LSD with my parents and watched a lot of Wes Anderson movies,” Burke says. Inspired by artists including William Eggleston, Larry Sultan, Alex Prager, Gregory Crewdson, and Phillip-Lorca diCorcia, Burke transports us into an oversaturated, dreamlike world staring his parents as protagonists in a series of scenes of daily life that transform the mundane into the magical.”
Rounding up our photo stories from Ireland is Jill Quigley’s playful work, made in rural Donegal cottages.
“‘This type of building, a white painted, thatched-roofed, two room cottage, is a common feature of tourism imagery of rural Ireland, associated with a disappearing way of life in the countryside,” Quigley says. “There are loads of these ruins in the Quigley’s Point area, and most people in Ireland would be familiar with similar cottages.”
