Irish photographer Ciarán Óg Arnold wins the First Book Award 2015

Ciáran Óg Arnold (b. 1977) is an Irish photographer who studied at the University of Ulster (MFA Photography, 2012). His work was included in ‘An Irish View’ at Rencontres d’Arles in 2009, and featured in Source magazine. As winner of the 2015 First Book Award , his book was published by MACK, and the work exhibited at Media Space, London.

United Kingdom –

I went to the worst of bars hoping to get killed. but all I could do was to get drunk again is a diary of sorts, following men down piss alleyways and into empty bars. The photographer accompanies the seekers of oblivion, their lopsided faces caught between ecstasy and apathy, their mouths chasing after the numbness of inebriation.

This is Ballinasloe, a sandstone town on the River Suck in the easternmost corner of Galway in Ireland, seen through the eyes of a native, Ciarán Óg Arnold. Within the rabble, Arnold trails after the cast-offs, invisible men who spend their time in murky corners, choosing to do nothing but drift and drink. Ballinasloe is a mouth; in Irish, mouth of the ford, mouth of the crowds. “We claim to hate it here” , writes Arnold, “but the truth is that we choose to stay, hiding from reality, drowning in drink and wanting to be left alone as we await whatever fate is in store.”

Over the years, Ballinasloe has become a ghost town, its immobile economy holding back only the indifferent. Its empty clubs are the ordinary voids of an orthodox escapism, the unvarying nightly vocation that is also creeping annihilation. The town is haunted by the absence of those unseeable others, who have also departed – the suicide kids of Charles Bukowski’s poem, from which the book’s title is taken.


 JURY  

Michael Mack
Michael has 20 years of art publishing experience as the managing director of Steidl and publisher of MACK. In 2011 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Plymouth for his contribution to art publishing.

Greg Hobson
Curator of Photographs at the National Media Museum, Bradford, Greg Hobson leads the Museum’s curatorial team in the conception and content delivery of its curatorial programme of exhibitions, displays and associated events.

Polly Fleury
Polly Fleury is Director of Special Projects at the Wilson Centre for Photography where she works closely with museums, artists, galleries and publishers bringing historical and contemporary photography to public view.

Simon Baker
Simon Baker is curator of photography and international art, Tate. Prior to becoming Tate’s first curator of photography in 2009 he was Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Nottingham. He has also curated photographic exhibitions internationally and has written widely on both photography and contemporary art.

Lucy Moore
Lucy Moore is the director of Claire de Rouen. She studied fine art at Chelsea College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art, and writes frequently as well as directing the bookshop and its new publishing imprint. In June 2014 she curated a new art book fair for the ICA, Room&Book. Bel Jacobs has interviewed her, and Norbert Schoerner is soon to take her portrait.

Related Posts

Slideluck Dublin in Limerick & Cork

Ireland –    Slideluck is thrilled to launch its second event in Ireland in conjunction with the PhotoIreland Festival. It ...

Visual Action

Visual Action: “They took them alive, We want them alive”

Mexico –  Visual Action works for human rights using visual action as its main tool. They produce and incentivize the ...

Naveen Munjal HeroEco

Career Explored: Hero Eco MD, Naveen Munjal Debuts his Street Photography

India –  Photography is my passion, always has been, as far back as I can remember… People from all walks ...

Format International Photography Festival 2014: Exposure Open Call

England – FORMAT International Photography Festival is one of the UK’s leading international contemporary festivals of photography and related media. FORMAT ...

Fabrica Photo Masterclass with “The Masters”

Italy –  Photography is how you express your view of the world. Put your ideas into focus to tell your ...

JH Engstrom wins Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2015 for ‘Tout Va Bien’

JH Engström is honoured with the award for his photographic project titled Tout Va Bien The depiction of the relationship between ...

Massimo Berruti Surveillance

Living in the Times of Everyday Surveillance: Powerful Exhibition Opens at East-Wing, Dubai

Dubai –  Surveillance.02 is presented and hosted by East Wing, and will run March 12 through April 30, 2015. Surveillance.02 ...

Atelier Smedsby: Workshop by JH Engstrom & Margot Wallard

France –  The Atelier Smedsby workshop is a one-year distance learning class incorporating three individual/group meetings in Paris. In between meetings ...

elf uhr elf: “Carnival in Cologne”

Germany –  Nine most well-known Cologne photo journalists and artists for the first time realised a collaborative art project about ...