Art and Activism in Cork and Dublin

The journey to learn about arts and activism in Cork and Dublin was a rocky one. When I was researching artists to interview while in Cork or Dublin, I really struggled. I spent countless hours googling artists using different search terms and topics, hoping to find something new and worthwhile with each search. Although I emailed around fifteen artists, only six or seven of them actually emailed me back. Out of those, many of the artists were no longer living in Cork or Dublin, or were on trips somewhere else in the world. This made my options very limited. At one point, I did have a photographer to interview in Dublin but a week before our trip, he canceled due to work commitments. Luckily, I had found another photographer I could interview in Cork and an interview with an activist photographer I could sit in on.

From LinkedIn

For my artist interview, I chose photographer Cathal Noonan. He currently lives in Cork but he grew up and went to university in Dublin. I found Cathal by chance while googling artists in the area. He started out with sports photography but got tired of that after about ten years. He then switched to commercial and public relations photography, which he is still doing today. Cathal also does some landscape photography but says that is more of something fun to do on the side as it will not make him any money. As a freelance photographer, Cathal is enjoying working for himself and has learned to only accept projects he thinks he can complete well and make money on. After all, photography, like many other art forms, is a very competitive field to go into that may be difficult to make a living off of. The link below leads to one of my favorite images on Cathal's website. 

http://cathalnoonan.com/p/UJBg7b 

One thing I found interesting was that Cathal originally was at university studying sound engineering and just messing around with photography on the side. After finishing his schooling, Cathal started taking photography a little more seriously. This is a similar situation to where I am at with my work. I started out just messing around with photography and, as I get older, have been working more and more on my photography skills. I learned from Cathal that in order to actually make a living with his photography, he has been forced to adjust his vision for a piece to what the client envisions themselves. 

From Website

For my activist interview, I met up with Anthony Griffin. Esther Whoo actually planned this interview and I just went along with her for safety and because he was a photographer. We conveniently met him in the pub right next to our hotel in Dublin. I did not have a chance to look him up and I did not know much about his work so Esther did the majority of the questioning. Through the interview, I discovered that he is a portrait photographer who has been doing activist work for many years. He recently did a project where he took portraits of women with Alopecia, a condition where one permanently loses all of the hair on one’s body. His goal was to bring this condition into the light to show how many women have this disease and how beautiful they still are. The link below will lead you to Anthony's website, where you can see the images from his project on Alopecia, "An Uncommon Beauty," as well as other projects he has done. 

https://www.agp.ie 

During the interview, I asked Anthony what his best advice would be for someone looking to get into portrait photography. His main advice was to help the subject feel comfortable showing their story. When he first started, he would plan sessions for short periods of time. However, he found that the more he talked with the subject, the more comfortable the subject was with him, and the more likely they would be to dive into the shoot and show their story. The best pictures came out of the sessions where he sat down and really got to know the person and their story before even touching his equipment or taking any photographs.