PhotoIreland closed 2024 having completed once again a substantial series of critical projects and events in Ireland and abroad. With the support of the Arts Council of Ireland and Creative Europe, these projects were brought to realisation with PhotoIreland’s unique approach and characteristic energy.
The year 2024 was one of transformations. Due to momentous developments happening behind the scenes there were a number of significant changes to our programming. As the year has come to an end, we are happy to share news of the progression onto the next phase of a milestone development for PhotoIreland, with an exciting announcement coming in 2025.
You can stay in the loop through our social media; over the coming weeks we will be reflecting on the work achieved since PhotoIreland was founded in 2010, conversing about the ideas and curatorial positions that inform our hard work to empower artists and excite audiences around Photography and the Visual Arts. Follow us there and join the conversation, and you will be the first to receive one of the most important announcements in the history of Photography in Ireland!
Meanwhile, we review in this post some of the projects we completed in 2024, part of PhotoIreland’s 360 degrees support framework, focused on artists, the artform and audiences. These have ranged from supporting artists with developmental programmes to publicly celebrating their work in events and exhibitions around the world.
Here they are–it is a long page to scroll!
FUTURES Photography Platform
It was a great year for FUTURES, all its international members, and the hundreds of artists represented: in 2024 the FUTURES foundation, the organisation administering the platform, was selected by the European Commission as a beneficiary of the Platform programme for the period 2025-2028. This means PhotoIreland will be able to continue serving Irish artists through the platform and the diversity of international partnerships for over a decade, having been a founding FUTURES member bringing Irish talent to Europe and international practices and ideas to Ireland since 2017.
It was an even more special year for PhotoIreland, as we were host to the platform’s annual travelling exhibition for the first time. This represented a close collaboration with Fotodok and Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Centre with whom we developed and co-curated ENERGY: Redistributing Power and Taming Consumption. The exhibition was accompanied by a programme of events, the Dublin Meet Up, where we held the always productive and enjoyable Critical Practice Reviews (CPR), which PhotoIreland developed in 2017, in answer to the standard portfolio review model. The CPR event brought together 20 Irish artists with 10 international and local professionals, from curators to editors.
The five Irish names put forward to join the platform in 2024 were Berta Mars, Chris Finnegan, Debbie Castro, Leon Nevill Gallagher, and Sarah Navan. In joining the platform, now in its 7th year, they not only entered a growing list of talent from across Europe, but also will continue to benefit from a range of opportunities supported by Creative Europe and the 18 platform members. From 26-28th September, these five artists participated in the FUTURES Annual Event 2024 at Organ Vida, Croatia, alongside one hundred artists and over eighteen curators, and heads of major international contemporary photography institutions.
For 2025, the open call has been opened by PhotoIreland to UK artists in addition to Irish artists. The jury process in currently ongoing and we will announce the 2025 FUTURES Talents in February.
We are excited about continuing our work with FUTURES. The year 2025 will bring a special FUTURES edition of OVER Journal, co-edited with our colleagues Tbilisi Photo Festival (GE), Centre Photographique Rouen Normandie (FR), and Capa Center (HU). The call for this issue will open soon!
New Irish Works
The 4th cycle of New Irish Works, PhotoIreland’s triennial support programme, completed the presentation of 10 projects and 11 exhibitions by the second quarter of 2024, presenting three solo exhibitions: Cian Burke 5-25 February, Mark Duffy 29 Feb-31 March, and Shia Conlon 4-28 April.
New Irish Works aims to represent and promote the growing diversity of contemporary photographic practices in Ireland. We want to enrich the Irish ecosystem with much needed new voices, new curatorial approaches, facilitate much deserved new opportunities, and invigorate the Irish photography scene.
So you know, the New Irish Works call for the 2025-27 period is about to be announced, and it is open to Irish and Ireland-based artists; it seeks new work by artists at any stage of their career. Stay tuned!
The Library Project
We kept busy at our cultural hub The Library Project with a number of book launches, events, and exhibitions. Starting with artist Avril Corroon’s GOT DAMP – a project developed from research into living conditions as a galvanising issue for communities in exercising their political voice. We welcomed Morgan Ashcom for a book signing of Open – photographs on the daily life in Occupied Palestine. A highlight in our calendar was the new publication launch Young Dubliners by Daragh Soden, ten years after its first exhibition as part of New Irish Works. We hosted the Irish launch of the award winning book and project All things laid dormant by Benedetta Casagrande.
The HALFTONE print fair celebrated its tenth edition in 2024 with 72 participating artists and 185 artworks, bringing together a large selection of works by established and emerging artists, showcasing Ireland’s exciting Art scene.
RADAR 2024
We welcomed Ciara Richardson (Technological University of Dublin), Conn McCarrick (Griffith College Dublin), Evanna Devine (Institute of Art Design and Technology Dun Laoghaire), Finbar Flanagan (Institute of Art Design and Technology Dun Laoghaire), and Jake Hughes (Ulster University Belfast Campus) to the RADAR Programme and will continue to work with them throughout 2025. RADAR is a support programme for graduates established in 2022, working with Inspirational Arts as an ambitious evolution of the Inspirational Arts Photography Award that was first established in 2009.
Watch this space for news of an upcoming exhibition with the RADAR 2023 artists!
TLP Editions: 16 new publications in 2024
During 2024, PhotoIreland continued the publishing support that is the TLP Editions series with 16 new publications:
- Care in Progress, Sarah Navan
- One Day, Mary Furlong
- The Garden Series, Kevin Griffin
- Tokyochrome, Alex Sinclair
- Train, Frankie Malone
- and then I ran, Emi O’Connell
- Distances, Billy Kenrick
- A Joining of Self, Suella Holland
- This is East Belfast, Philip Arneill
- Bull Island, Myles Shelly
- Tumble Dryer, Finbar Flanagan
- An Poc ar Buile, Clodagh O’Leary
- Baby Teeth, Anouk Burke
- Joly Dots and Don’ts, Alan Phelan
- Dereenacappera, Caitriona Dunnett
- Of Petals, Pearls and Inherited Creatures, Dee Byrne
These represent the publication numbers 67 to 82 of the TLP Editions series, and they are part of the first 25 publications that will be part of the TLP EDITIONS BOX II, presented in a bottle green acrylic box.
The selection of artists is done through a open call every year, and the scope of projects accepted is quite wide. The TLP Editions series was designed to represent the full spectrum of practices engaged in image making in Ireland. While the TLP Editions series was a project born to fill in gaps between busy production periods of our team, the project grew substantially and has been very well received, quickly becoming a substantial publishing element of our projects.
You can get your copies in The Library Project and find out what’s coming in this post. The call for 2025 will open soon.
Critical Texts
In 2023, as part of our contribution to the FUTURES Photography Platform, we co-edited the 5th issue of Trigger Magazine together with Emese Mucsi (Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Centre), Daria Tuminas (Fotodok), and Tom Viaene (FOMU Antwerp). It represented an amazing opportunity to collaborate with our international peers. Since then, we have sold many copies of the issue at The Library Project and during the FUTURES Meet Up last October.
Wonderfully so, you can now get the whole box set, including the co-edited ENERGY issue, designed and distributed by Hans Gremmen/ from Fw:Books. It is a set of 456 pages total, limited edition of 30 boxes. It brings together Trigger #01 Impact, Trigger #02 Uncertainty, Trigger #03 Care, Trigger #04 Together, Trigger #05 Energy.
As a collaborator of Photobook Week Aarhus from its inception, PhotoIreland was delighted to join the 10th anniversary celebrations in 2024. Commemorating such an accomplishment, a publication titled Talking About Photobooks brought together an incredible list of contributors; the collection of texts gives an insight in the history of the photobook medium, its relationship to architecture and artificial intelligence, and the many roles the photobook can play in art and society, in the centre and the periphery. You can get your copy at The Library Project.
Another fascinating publishing project we were invited to contribute to is ‘The Routledge Companion to Global Photographies’, edited by Lucy Soutter and Duncan Wooldridge. Founder and Director Ángel Luis González Fernández was given a unique opportunity to reflect on his work on PhotoIreland over the last 15 years. His contribution to this new Routledge title is found under “Towards A New Arts Ecosystem: PhotoIreland’s Strategy in Converging Communities around Photography”, looking at the context of Photography in Ireland and extracting reflections that can hopefully inform other constituencies.
The book is an ambitious survey of contemporary practices by 53 contributors across six sections, edited from distinct thematic threads and geographies. In the words of Duncan Wooldridge: “Mixing theory and practice equally, written in different styles and with different approaches. The only straightforwardly academic thing about the book is its design and the price of the hardback, balanced out by free digital open access to all of the book from day one, and a paperback to come”. It represents a substantial and energising look at Photography with the global and contemporary perspective it deserves, and it contains many relevant and refreshing contributions: it is a must for everyone’s library. But you may want to wait for the paperback, access it through your local library, or browse online at the Open Access version of the book, as the hardback is over €200.
PhotoIreland in Italy, New Zealand, Korea, and Portugal
Aside from our international collaborations through FUTURES, manifested throughout Europe with the Annual Meeting in Arles and the Annual Event in Zagreb, PhotoIreland travelled far and wide in 2024, joining the launch of Fotografia Europea 2024 in Reggio Emilia and the first edition of the super successful Exposed Torino Foto Festival, while perusing Les Rencontres d’Arles and LUMA’s offering, and researching Adriano Pedrosa’s proposition and the Irish representation at the Venice Biennale.
We were invited to curate an exhibition On the Irish Photobook for the Photobook/NZ biennial, in Wellington. With the support of Culture Ireland, last August we presented a selection of 192 books by over 120 Irish artists from the PhotoIreland Collection, brought together to exemplify the importance of the book format for contemporary photographic practices in Ireland. The events programmed as part of Photobook/NZ gave us a better understanding of the context and challenges of the region, and allowed us to get to meet many great artists and curators.
Last September, PhotoIreland was invited to join the Daegu Photo Biennale 2024 Portfolio Review in Korea. As always, we took the opportunity to promote Irish practices, opening a call for artists based in ireland that wanted to come forward with their publications, to donate these to editors and curators in Korea. We met many professionals along the way during our visit, offering these and other publications from our own imprint to their private and public collections. The Daegu Photo Biennale 2024 Portfolio Review events were as productive as enjoyable, under the expert hand of curator, lecturer, and critic Kim Sohee. We learnt about the practice of many great local artists.
During the visit to Daegu, we spoke with Jae-hyun Seok, independent curator and director of ArtSpace LUMOS, enjoying a tour of the gallery facilities, its great library, and getting to know more about his programme. He was the 2024 Director of Busan International Photo Festival, which was our next stop, with a special detour to the Negative Gallery.
In Seoul, amongst other visits, we headed to the Museum Hanmi, which since 2003 is Korea’s first art museum specialised in Photography. There, we were delighted to discover copies of OVER Journal issue 1, 2 and 3 displayed in the library (find out why!), and to converse with its curator, Kim Sunyoung, sharing projects and ideas.
One more appointment concluded the Korean visit, invited by Professor Kyungwoo Chun for a lecture with the Photography and Art students at Chung Ang University, to converse about our work and the context of Photography in Ireland.
Finally, the year ended with news that À Propos du Flâneur would present a retrospective of the project ‘Flaneur – New Urban Narratives‘ in Portugal from December 2024 until the 22nd February 2025. The retrospective exhibition features a number of artists from previous editions. Three of the artists included were nominated by PhotoIreland, producing work through a residency exchange programme: Esther Teichmann (DE), Martina Cleary (IE), and Rik Moran (UK), as well as Róisín White (IE) who was selected through an open call process. Here you can refresh your memory or find out more about the Creative Europe project Flaneur – New Urban Narratives, led by Procur.arte, of which PhotoIreland was the Irish partner.
Meanwhile, more work in Ireland:
- We joined the event ‘MacGuffin: The Life of Things in conversation’ presented and organised by Neighbrhd for Irish Design Week. This event was programmed in collaboration with the Irish Architecture Foundation at the IAF’s temporary but incredibly ambitious venue at Charlemont Walk, Dublin 2, and the Library Project.
- We were invited to join Kunstverein Aughrim’s Winter Preview with Sarah Browne, providing access to the latest titles from acclaimed poet CAConrad. Some signed copies are still up for grabs!
- We shared our latest work at the Dublin Art Book Fair 2024: Joly Dots and Don’ts by Alan Phelan, Baby Teeth by Anouk Burke, Dereenacappera by Caitriona Dunnett, An Poc ar Buile by Clodagh O’Leary, Tumble Dryer by Finbar Flanagan, Bull Island by Myles Shelly, Tokyochrome by Alex Sinclair, and Care in Progress by Sarah Navan.
- PhotoIreland Director Ángel Luis González joined the December Island Talk, alongside artist Aoife Herrity and curator and art historian Dr. Audrey Whitty, organised by Island Photographers Group.
Image copyright: Island Photographers Group.
Behind the Scenes
While the public facing projects mentioned above tend to attract all the attention, there are always a good few things happening behind the scenes. Here are some of them:
- British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Humanity
PhotoIreland was invited to join the jury of the British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Humanity, a great opportunity to discover new artists and new practices. We are delighted that three Irish artists are represented in the shortlist: Emily O’Connell, Niamh Barry, Shane Coughlan. - Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2023
PhotoIreland Director Ángel Luis González was invited as one of the nominees for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2023. - TU Dublin’s BA Photography ‘Archiving in Context’ module at The Library Project
For the last 6 years, we have collaborated with the lecturers at the TU Dublin’s BA Photography programme in hosting an element of their 5-credit internship module called ‘Archiving in Context’ at The Library Project. The module was developed in collaboration with Ann Curran, Programme Chair, School of Media DIT Grangegorman. From October to December, Third year students engage with the PhotoIreland Collection comprising over 4000 photobooks, contributing to the cataloguing of the new arrivals and the care of the existing materials. To date, it has given the opportunity to students to learn about archiving data in a consistent and critical manner, while having direct access to the latest photobooks as they arrive to the collection. This year we were fortunate to work with another three excellent students Norma Burke, Darragh Hickey, and Adam Tucker. - Professional Development Programme
Throughout the year, we work tirelessly with artists in long-term supports, through projects such as the Professional Development Programme, for example continuing our long-term engagement with photographer Tim Durham, as much as providing one-on-one consultations to artists and arts organisations on issues ranging from funding, project development, career progression, the contemporary photography scene, and much more. Find out more about our range of services online. - Last, but no least, The Library Project hosted two exhibitions by Black Church Print Studios: Unlimiting the Edition and Pru:f.
