My new show ‘Chasing shadows: Irish music photographs’, an exhibition from an ongoing project documenting and following Irish Traditional music in its continual evolution and flux, will be running from July 20th – August 25th in the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, as part of their ‘The Full Irish’ summer programme.

Official opening by Eugene McCormack, Mayor of Castlebar, 7.30 pm, Wednesday 20th July.

Click here to see a selection of the photos from the exhibition.

This set of 20 documentary photographs of music and places in Ireland will be exhibited in The Celtic Junction Irish cultural centre, Minneapolis-St Paul, MN from late January to June 2011. Opening Friday 29th January at 7pm.

My aim for this project is to make a visual record of my personal experience of Irish traditional music as it moves and changes from musician to musician, from generation to generation, from place to place, from social playing to formal performance, etc.

The photographs were taken during the Autumn and Winter of 2010, using Nikon F and Leica M3 cameras with Kodak Tri-x 400 film to give a ‘classic’ black and white documentary look.

Click here to see the images.

Here are a selection of photos from this year’s fantastic Frankie Kennedy Winter School. The Winter School is a festival held each New Year in Gweedore, Co. Donegal to celebrate the memory of Frankie Kennedy, flute player and founder-member of Altan. It is one of Ireland’s leading traditional music events- and you can find out more about the festival’s history, programme, etc here.

A selection of my photos of traditional musicians (click here for the images) along with pieces from visual artist Susan Hughes (click here to see Susan’s work) will be on show in the Highlands Hotel, Glenties, Co. Donegal from the 2nd – 9th October 2010. The exhibition is opening at 2pm on Saturday 2nd as part of the Annual Glenties Fiddlers Weekend, more information on which can be found here. Hope to see you there!

d.

My first photo exhibition is opening at 7.30pm, Thursday 9th September in the very lovely & legendary Winding Stair Bookshop, 40 Ormond Quay, Dublin.

Click here to see the photos and here for more about the venue.

Thanks to Brian, Regan and all at the Winding Stair for the opportunity-

d.

Two weeks after it ended, and having had time to draw breath, i’ve uploaded a set of photos from the Willie Clancy Summer School in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare. The “Willie Week”, as it’s informally known, is a wonderful celebration of Irish music, song & dance; & more information on the festival can be found here

I’ve been in Minnesota for the last three weeks, staying in Minneapolis. So far, apart from Baseball, swimming, lying in bed, eating etc i’ve managed to fit in a trip up the Noth Shore of Lake Superior and an Irish Music festival here in the Twin Cities . As the trip is drawing to an end (and as i’m laid up with a sore back today) i’ve put together a selection from the photos taken along the way. Next stop New York for two days, then it’s home to Dublin, hopefully with even more photos from NYC

After a great night of music on Thursday in Dublin (the first photograph, of Eoin Begley’s accordion) i headed to Donegal in dangerous company, looking for more of the same….

On Saturday we took a long taxi trip, chasing a rumour of a party in the Reelan Bridge pub in the remote Croaghs or Bluestack Mountains. The Reelan, although not known as a music venue these days, is well known amongst lovers of Donegal fiddle music as it was a favourite haunt of the famous travelling fiddler John Doherty in the 1960s and ’70s. It seemed appropriate that on stepping inside the door we were faced with a rogues gallery of present-day musical legends from Donegal and beyond. Tunes came thick and fast from the likes of Dinny McLaughlin, Josephine Keegan, Danny Meehan and Jimmy Campbell. The early hours of Sunday morning were upon us all too quickly, and with them a bumpy taxi ride back to Dunkineeley for a much-needed sleep!

Back in Dublin and with life returning to normal i had the good fortune to notice a dramatic storm front passing over Merrion Square on Monday afternoon, leaving one side of the square was in bright sunlight and the other in darkness; i managed a few photos before the light faded and have included one of them here.

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2010!

Here are some photos from the fantastic Frankie Kennedy Winter School in Gweedore, Co. Donegal. I was hoping to post these last week but snow, ice combined and computer issues intervened.

The first picture is Seamus O’Kane from Dungiven, bodhrán player and maker of renown and a tutor at the festival.
Next is Aidan O’Donnell of Dunkineely, Co. Donegal and Kieran Munnelly of Belmullet, Co. Mayo, playing fiddle and flute respectively under the watchful eye of Áine Gleeson.
I’ve included the third picture to prove that i didn’t spend all my time in Donegal in seditious company in pubs and hotel bars. This photo of a bare tree highlighted in the soft winter light, with Errigal’s beautiful quartzite cone in the background was taken on a walk down the ice-covered Bunbeg-to-Dunlewy road on the first morning of the festival; eventually, after almost coming to grief a number of times i retreated and decided i’d be safer indoors for the remainder of the week…

The subject of the second-last image is Glasgow/Donegal fiddler and singer Clare Friel; and the last photograph is of a music session in An Chuirt, the hotel where the festival tutors and performers were based. The musicans in the photo are, from left to right, Theresa Kavanagh (fiddle), JP Sweeny (fiddle), Yvonne McGinley (piano accordion), Martin McGinley (fiddle, with his back to camera), Ian Smith (guitar), Conor Caldwell (fiddle) and Anna Friel (flute)

Here are a few photographs from the week before Christmas, starting with a Christmas tree, of course….