Eamonn Doyle: “i”

Born in Dublin in 1969, Eamonn studied painting and photography at college, graduating in 1991. He spent much of the next two decades producing and publishing music, during which he also founded the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival alongside the record labels D1 Recordings and Dead Elvis. He returned to photography in 2008. His debut photo-book i, 2014, was described by Martin Parr as ‘the best street photo-book in a decade’. This was followed by ON, 2015, and the award-winning End., 2016, which together with i, became known as his Dublin trilogy, culminating in a ground-breaking immersive exhibition at Rencontres d’Arles 2016

Ireland –

I started photographing in and around Dublin city centre in the late 1980s, but I took something of a hiatus from photography in the late 1990s in order to concentrate on music. Returning to photography in recent years, I set out to work with what I knew. As a long-term resident of Parnell Street in Dublin’s north inner city, there was a wealth of photographic subjects on my doorstep. It’s an old working class area, now quite multicultural. At times it’s edgy and raw and vibrant, while at others, it seems half-sunk in a weary pathos.

This set of photographs came about over a long reflective period in which I was re-reading Beckett. While photographing, I began to strip away as much of the context and background from the subjects as I could. The subjects are all shot at close range, but respectfully, perhaps even reverently. The pictures show only fragments of possible narratives, but for me, every life has weight and drama, even if its meaning is ultimately elusive.”

Written and Photography feature by Eamonn Doyle.