Snap joyful: Irish photographers on the story behind their favorite images – The Irish Times

Millions of photos are actually taken each second. Photos snapped on smartphones, some cherished, some posted, however most rapidly forgotten. And then there are these highly effective photos that appear to seize all the pieces necessary in a second. Some may even be life-changing.

But what would photographers select as their favorite images from their very own huge archives?

As the spectre of AI haunts up to date picture making, these images present how a lot the lens nonetheless issues.

Alen MacWeeney

White Horse, Donegal, 1965 from W.B. Yeats collection

Looking for a option to return and {photograph} in Ireland after transferring to New York in 1964, I used to be sitting across the kitchen desk with my associates Artelia and Henry. Henry famous it might be the centenary of W.B. Yeats the following yr. The concept gripped us – we’d go there, I’d {photograph}, and we’d make a e-book in regards to the sources of Yeats’s poetry. With no ideas of deciphering his verse ever in thoughts, I’d {photograph} the varieties of individuals, animals, panorama and locations that inhabited his poetry: Ireland, in any case, hadn’t modified all that a lot from Yeats’s time by then.

With an sudden project, a household mortgage, free lodging in my mother and father’ flat, the usage of the household automotive and a promise of three pages in Harper’s Bazaar journal, we flew to Dublin, escaping the suffocating warmth of New York in a small house with out air-con.

We drove to Donegal, although Sligo was our major vacation spot, being central to Yeats’s life and having his burial web site in Drumcliffe churchyard. In Donegal, grazing by the roadside was a lovely white horse. An emblem or token from folklore, it stood nonetheless as a statue fabricated from marble. I finished the automotive, acquired out with my new Rolleiflex digicam and took a roll of 12 images. The horse turned his head, most likely irritated by an insect, however this motion enhanced the mythic high quality.

Harper’s Bazaar revealed the picture in September 1965.

Dublin-born Alen MacWeeney turned a press photographer with The Irish Times at 16, earlier than changing into assistant to Richard Avedon. Based in New York, he’s right this moment one of many world’s main photographers. A significant survey of his work, Anthology, is revealed by Cork University Press in October, and he could have an exhibition at Photo Museum Ireland in December. alenmacweeney.com @alenmacweeney

Rich Gilligan

Bruce Kelliher, Kenmare, Co Kerry, 2000

This {photograph} reveals one among my closest associates, Bruce Kelliher, skateboarding down a bridge in Kenmare, Co Kerry, in 2000. It was the primary photograph I ever had revealed, working as a double-page unfold within the April 2001 difficulty of SLAP journal from San Francisco. Having grown up in a pre-internet period I used to be utterly obsessive about skate magazines, so the truth that this was revealed in a legit international skate publication was an enormous deal for each myself and Bruce.

The solely place that truly offered SLAP in Dublin at the moment was the Tower Records on Wicklow Street, so for weeks I’d go in after work and verify each day if it had arrived, harassing disgruntled workers members to verify the packing containers. And then someday it was there, and I purchased up all 10 copies so no person else other than our shut family and friends really noticed it. The pleasure was subsequent stage. Seeing my work in print alongside photographers and skaters I’d idolised for years was a life-changing expertise.

This opened up the doorways of chance for us each in methods we couldn’t absolutely grasp again then. Bruce went on to get sponsored and have become one of many best-known Irish skaters internationally. Wherever he went, folks remembered him not only for his skill on his board, but in addition for a way he navigated the world and the folks he met alongside the best way. Bruce was a constructive power of nature not like anybody I’ve ever encountered. He sadly died in early 2022 and is missed by many. His legacy lives on.

Rich Gilligan is an artist primarily based in Co Wicklow, taking images for over 30 years. His portraits have been revealed in Time, iD, The New York Times, Dazed & Confused, and he has labored on campaigns for Carhartt WIP, Adidas Originals and Rough Trade Records. His exhibition, Earth Tourist is at Segotia Gallery till September 18th. richgilligan.com @richgilligan

Agata Stoinska

Echoes of a Dream: Seed, 2024

This self portrait was taken at a second once I was saying goodbye to a spot that formed greater than 15 years of my life. It was the primary picture of what would develop into the collection Echoes of a Dream. The remainder of the collection was shot digitally, however that is the one one I took on movie. It can be a yr earlier than I developed the adverse, so I didn’t fairly bear in mind what I had captured.

The {photograph} was made throughout the remaining days of packing up D-Light Studios, the artist-led area I had based in Dublin in 2008, reworking a derelict warehouse right into a inventive residence for the a whole lot of artists, creatives and individuals who develop into a part of its group. In October 2023 we obtained an eviction word, and after months of collective effort to maintain it alive, we needed to face the fact that there was not a means to reserve it. The time had come to dismantle what we had constructed.

The remaining days had been crammed each with shared exercise and quiet private reflection. While associates and neighbours had been clearing totally different components of the constructing, I discovered a second of quiet amongst the emptying rooms, surrounded by half packed packing containers. The lack of D-Light introduced with it one other realisation – that I had maybe by no means absolutely allowed myself to inhabit this area as an artist – I had put an excessive amount of of myself to supporting everybody else’s inventive follow.

This turned my final probability to say a motion inside this area for my very own inventive reflection, and I discovered myself questioning whether or not I had simply been a caretaker, whether or not D-Light had been my salvation or my jail.

In this picture I’m holding a monstera, a favorite plant I had grown from a tiny reducing. Only once I lifted it in entrance of the digicam did I realise how a lot “she” had grown, her leaves now so massive they utterly obscured my face. I felt her weight towards my physique, the pot resting, just like the stomach of a pregnant girl.

What continues to maneuver me about this {photograph} is its ambiguity. I’m hidden and current, holding one thing I’ve raised, whereas remaining behind it, supporting its weight. Today, the constructing not exists as we knew it, however its spirit lives on via the individuals who handed via. The monstera now fills my pal’s front room, a reminder that even when locations disappear, what they nurture can proceed to take root elsewhere. Healing takes time, however each ending carries inside it the potential for one other starting.

Agata Stoinska is a Polish-born artist who moved to Dublin in 2003, and now works between Dublin and Amsterdam. Her venture Echoes of a Dream was proven in 2025 on the RHA and this yr at Momentum Gallery, Miami. She is at present increasing it right into a cross-cultural analysis venture on mourning rituals and reminiscence. stoinska.com / @agatastoinska

Salem Anowe Chukwuezi

Untitled, from the collection No Man’s Land, 2026

This picture is a part of my graduate showcase, No Man’s Land, a venture about belonging, id, and what it means to be Irish right this moment. It focuses on the experiences of individuals from immigrant backgrounds and places them in recognisably Irish landscapes. This venture questions who’s seen in a contemporary Ireland and explores how tradition, place, and private expertise are intertwined.

In February 2026, I photographed Maeron Libombi Mampuja, who has Congolese-French heritage, and Oby Enehikare, who has Nigerian-Ghanaian heritage, on a farm close to my hometown of Ratoath, Co Meath. This picture may be very private to me because the farm symbolises the rurality of my upbringing, whereas their ethnic apparel celebrates cultural heritage.

Growing up in a Nigerian family in rural Ireland usually felt like residing between two worlds: one formed by the Irish countryside and the secluded group, whereas the opposite was fashioned by the native traditions and values of my Nigerian heritage. Both are equally a part of who I’m.

At a time the place patriotism is used to justify xenophobia, No Man’s Land reveals that being Irish isn’t solely in regards to the soil you had been born from, however it displays the fact of those that stay inside it, an id formed by motion, contribution, and shared expertise.

Salem Anowe Chukwuezi is an award successful Nigerian visible artist primarily based in Co Meath and Dublin. In 2026, she was chosen for the Judge’s Choice for the inaugural Taylor Wessing Photo Prize Dublin. schukwuezi035398.myportfolio.com

Clodagh Kilcoyne

The Life of Asma, 2018

I took this {photograph} on an project throughout the Rohingya refugee disaster in 2018. More than 700,000 Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar’s Rakhine State had fled from violence and killings into neighbouring Bangladesh, creating the most important refugee camp community on the planet. Well over 1 million displaced had been residing in crowded short-term tents so far as the attention can see, in an space known as Cox’s Bazar.

Here, Rohingya refugee Asma Akter, simply 10 years previous, works onerous labour lifting heavy luggage of frozen fish from a supply truck at Nazirartek fish drying yard, below the burning Bangladesh solar in Cox’s Bazar. Asma needs to be in class or enjoying together with his associates, residing his life carefree.

In order to try to eek out some semblance of a residing, refugees slip out of the guarded camps at daybreak and work close by till nightfall for a really meagre sum – and in some circumstances, paid in fish – to complement the inadequate humanitarian help.

This picture resonated with me as a result of in battle, violence, authorities sanctions and battle, it’s youngsters that all the time pay the very best value and bear the heaviest load.

Clodagh Kilcoyne is a contract photographer who labored for Reuters for 10 years. She is predicated in Ireland. As effectively as masking home tales, she works abroad photographing humanitarian disaster, battle, pure disasters, common information and sport. She has coated all kinds of tales from the Olympics to the battle in Ukraine, the Turkish-Syrian earthquake, the White House and the West Bank in Palestine. @clodaghkilcoyne

Perry Ogden

Helena Christensen, Connemara, June 1993

Stylist: Isabella Stanhope. Make-up: Lucia Pieroni. Hair: Kerry Warn

I can’t say I’ve a favorite photograph, there are such a lot of. This photograph of Helena Christensen is from a narrative I shot with stylist Isabella Stanhope for British Elle. In true Nineties supermodel fashion, Helena arrived at Ballynahinch Castle by helicopter and was pushed to the set we had created in the midst of the Connemara lavatory close to Lough Aliggan.

Around this time I had develop into disenchanted with images – notably the business facet – and was backwards and forwards to Paris the place I used to be learning drawing and portray. I didn’t assume I’d take images once more commercially however when Isabella requested me to do that shoot and stated she may get Helena, I assumed it might be value a go. I felt like I used to be studying from drawing and portray, and I had develop into fascinated by the panorama of the lavatory and mountains, and the ritual of saving turf – the digging, drying and footing.

When taking pictures style I wish to have a narrative, to create characters. Shooting style, you might be depending on many parts: hair, make-up, styling, props, the climate. It’s a collaborative effort and also you’re hoping that you find yourself creating greater than the sum of the components. Of course, it helps to be working with a high, high mannequin. This was a kind of magical days when all the pieces did come collectively and collectively we created a bit little bit of magic.

The story appeared throughout 12 pages within the November 1993 version of Elle. This picture notably resonates as so many parts clicked: Helena’s expression, the outfit, the sunshine, the setting. I like my photos to look as if I caught a second, as if I used to be passing by, noticed one thing magical and requested the individual to cease whereas I photographed them. I’m all the time after an authenticity, irrespective of how a lot has gone into creating that sense of authenticity.

Perry Ogden is a photographer, filmmaker and social activist, identified for his work with SARI, who for the previous 30 years has been primarily based in Dublin. His books embody Pony Kids, 7 Reece Mews: Francis Bacon’s Studio, and Paddy & Liam. He is at present engaged on a collection in regards to the final artists of Henrietta Street. perryogden.com @perryogden

Ros Kavanagh

Marie Mullen, publicity picture for Testament, a play by Colm Tóibín directed by Garry Hynes. Made for Landmark Productions on its world premiere in 2011

I really didn’t take this {photograph}. Marie Mullen, standing in entrance of the lens, pressed the shutter by squeezing a bulb of air held in her hand. You can see the intermittent glint of the tube that related it to the digicam. I had learn the script earlier than the shoot, and thought, “I have no business to be deciding on this woman’s image”. In the play, she offers an account of her story to an empty room. It is unequivocally her perspective, and I needed to see if I may protect that.

To create a scene the place this might occur, I made a confined area of interest with a gap on the again. This was to offer a way of confinement, with an concept of there being an “outside” to this area. A beam of sunshine targeted on Marie’s face. With this in place, she stepped in to the body and took the pictures when she selected.

There are often a number of folks concerned in a publicity shoot: the photographer, the producer, and make-up and hair will probably be additionally checking. Here, with all this happening, the moments of seize had been quiet. I’ve been photographing theatre for practically 40 years (in the event you depend the college performs) and I nonetheless can’t fairly perceive how photos of actors in character can translate to one thing recognisably highly effective via a lens. It’s some type of undefinable power. Noticing it, and never making an attempt to rationalise it, makes for a repeatedly magical and fulfilling occupation.

Ros Kavanagh is an arts photographer primarily based in Dublin, professionally photographing since 1997. He works with arts organisations and artists and says he’s happiest when collaborating, whereas additionally producing his personal work. roskavanagh.com @roskavanagh

Anthony Haughey

Mother and Children with Bible and Gun, from the collection Home, 1992

In the summer time of 1989, I hitchhiked round Ireland with a small bag and a digicam. Somewhere in Co Mayo, I climbed right into a battered Renault 4. Looking down on the passenger footwell, I may see the highway speeding beneath us via a gap the place rust had eaten away the ground. There was no cash and little or no certainty in Ireland then. Yet, in that second, it felt like residence.

I arrived in Dublin in late August to stick with my aunt Mary and uncle Paddy in Ballymun. I spent a lot of my time with my cousin Mick. We climbed to the highest of the Ballymun Towers and watched planes taking off from Dublin Airport. One lazy afternoon I used to be hanging round the home. My aunt and my two youthful cousins had been in the lounge, with a small tv flickering within the nook. My aunt was studying the Bible. My cousin Áine was half asleep, whereas Eoin lay throughout the desk enjoying with a toy gun. They had been oblivious to my presence. I lifted my Rolleiflex, seemed down into the viewfinder, and made a single publicity. Then I assumed no extra about it.

Two weeks later I used to be again at artwork faculty in England. As I seemed via the contact sheets, this picture instantly caught my consideration. Looking at it, I realised I had made {a photograph} not like something I had finished earlier than. That single {photograph} modified the path of my life. It turned the place to begin for Home, the physique of labor that established me as an artist. What started with that one body in my aunt’s home has travelled to greater than 25 nations, introducing audiences around the globe to a deeply private portrait of Ballymun and pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland.

Anthony Haughey lives in Co Louth. His work is held in main nationwide and worldwide public collections, and will function in forthcoming exhibitions on the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Ireland and Highlanes Gallery. He is at present creating All Quiet on the Eastern Front, a brand new physique of labor exploring the Nato–Russia borderlands. He is co-editor of Contemporary Socially Engaged Art Practice in Ireland: Modalities and Counter-Narratives, to be revealed by Cork University Press in November. anthonyhaughey.com @anthony_haughey

Conor Horgan

Portrait of Oliver Stanley, 1992

To select a favorite {photograph} is, in fact, unimaginable. Even if I ignore the landscapes and nonetheless lifes I’ve made and slender it all the way down to portraiture, I’ve shot so very lots of these it’s extraordinarily troublesome to select one favorite.

Unless it’s this portrait of Oliver Stanley.

Technically, it’s removed from good. Taken in the beginning of my profession, it owes moderately an excessive amount of to the fashion of Richard Avedon, one among my early photographic heroes. I want I’d framed Oliver a bit to the left. Did I actually should crop the highest of his head fairly so tightly? Made in a time earlier than Photoshop, I simply needed to stay with the shaving reduce on his chin.

But oh, the eyes – the eyes have it.

I first met designer and activist Oliver whereas in the midst of a private disaster, one which he helped me via with compassion, generosity and no small quantity of wit. We turned agency associates. Though when the portrait was taken in 1992 he had but to inform me and most of his associates that he was HIV constructive. When he did, he let me know this was the portrait he needed used for his obituary. He died on April eleventh, 1995, on the age of 41.

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It is feasible to decide on a portrait of one among my favorite folks, which may symbolize all of my favorite portraits. What they’ve in widespread is, in addition to revealing one thing necessary in regards to the topic, they make me really feel one thing. We take photos of individuals to recollect what they seem like. This reveals what a lovely man Oliver was. It doesn’t seize his mischievous sense of humour, however it does present one thing of his depth of character, not least his data that he didn’t have lengthy to stay, coupled together with his near-total lack of self-pity. These are a number of the qualities of a hero. When I have a look at this picture, the sensation I expertise most keenly is love.

Conor Horgan is an award-winning visible artist, photographer and filmmaker. He received the inaugural Taylor Wessing Irish Photography Prize in April and has an upcoming exhibition Súil Amach, An Outward Eye, a Literature Ireland and Culture Ireland exhibition of portraits of nice Irish writers that will probably be launched within the EU Parliament in September. conorhorgan.com @conorhorgan

Doreen Kilfeather

Bonnie & Mabel, at residence, 2024

This picture was captured for a Tatler fee celebrating Simone Rocha’s collaboration with H&M. The assortment consists of menswear, womenswear and youngsters’s clothes. Working with stylist and artistic director Aisling Farinella we selected to shoot the gathering that includes actual households as an alternative of conventional fashions. Sisters Bonnie and Mabel are pictured right here. I’ve all the time been fascinated by clothes – what we put on, why we put on it, the way it makes us really feel and the distinctive textures and sounds of various materials.

Portraiture is central to my work and clothes is important for speaking a topic’s id. Documenting these sisters in their very own residence, sporting their favorite items from the gathering, was an absolute pleasure. Captured via a cinematic lens, this portrait explores themes of residence, id, sisterhood, household and play.

Doreen Kilfeather is a Dublin-based photographer specialising in portraiture and style images. Her private initiatives give attention to her household and associates and their youngsters. She returns to those communities of associates every year to doc the sensation of being a toddler, an adolescent, a younger grownup, in portraits that seize each the individual and a way of the place they occupy. @dkilfeather