PhotoIreland Collection:
A growing contemporary collection of Photobooks and artworks.
library.photoireland.org
@TLP_Says /TheLibraryProject @tlp_says TLP
Started: February 2011.
What: We imagined a library dedicated to Photography and Image Culture with unique, contemporary publications from all over the world, for you to enjoy. From 2018, the collection evolved to focus on a broader scope, hosting artworks alongside photobooks, making these available to national and international organisations.
When: Opens Tue-Fri 11-6pm | Sat & Sun 12-6pm | Closed Mondays & Bank Holidays.
Where: The Library Project, 4 Temple Bar Street, Dublin 2.
Why: The PhotoIreland Collection started its life as The Library Project in 2011, aiming to bring to Irish audiences a collection of publications around Photography, complementing those of the public and university libraries, and building the core of a public resource library. To date, it holds over 2000 items from more than 200 publishers worldwide.
Initiated in 2011 by Claudi Nir and Ángel Luis González Fernández, The Library Project set out to offer the public an on-going collection of the latest photobooks, magazines and zines, whether produced by publishing houses or self-published.
In 2012, the collection was expanded with the efforts of Arcangela Regis. Then, Claudi Nir, Alison Baker Kerrigan, and Svetlana Zabelka started cataloguing the items. In 2013, with the support and passion of Steven Maybury, Katie Mooney-Sheppard, Gill Thorpe, Sinéad Corcoran, and Lorna Murphy, the collection kept expanding, it was catalogued, and was finally made available online library.photoireland.org
The curated selection holds already a respectable number of titles, and welcomes everyone, both individuals and organisations, to contribute to and enjoy this unique public resource library. The collection offers an online catalogue with most of the items in the collection being constantly updated.
The PhotoIreland Collection is made available at The Library Project at its present address; it is the ground floor gallery space of Black Church Print Studio’s purpose-built premises at 4 Temple Bar Street. Closing every January and September by contract to accommodate Black Church Print Studio’s exhibitions. Presented as a library, the space receives regular visits by students from centres like IADT, DIT, LSAD, Griffith College, Colaiste Dhulaigh, Burren College of Art, South Eastern Regional College, and NCAD, amongst others.
The collection is loaned for research and exhibition purposes to other organisations, such as for the Photobook Phenomenon exhibition at the Centre of Contemporary Culture in Barcelona (CCCB) and Fundació Foto Colectania in 2017, travelling later in 2018 to the San Telmo Museum.
Since 2018, the collection became mobile, and made a first trip to Organ Vida in Zagreb and Unseen Fair in Amsterdam with the kind support of Culture Ireland, Futures, and Parallel.
