Tom Clonan is a very interesting character. He’s a former Army officer and whistleblower, who produced a damning report about the mistreatment of women in the Defence Forces.
Read MoreThe Whistleblower
Dr. Tom Clonan photographed in Dublin, January 2020.
Tom Clonan is a very interesting character. He’s a former Army officer and whistleblower, who produced a damning report about the mistreatment of women in the Defence Forces. I photographed him recently for his upcoming Senate Election campaign, which he’s undertaking on behalf of children and young people in Ireland with disabilities. You can read more about the campaign here.
There are more of my portraits of leaders here.
L'esprit de l'escalier
L'esprit de l'escalier is a French expression that no French person seems to have heard of, which describes what it’s like to think of a perfect response long after the opportunity to deliver it has passed.
I was leaving La Guarida in Havana when I noticed him coming down the staircase, and when I asked for a photograph he knew just the right pose.
There are some more of my Havana photographs here.
Taken on my first visit to the MEP, in the company of my favourite exhibitions coordinator.
The staircase in my last apartment. Monter ces escaliers aide à garder le cul soigné, as they say.
Etymology
Borrowed from French esprit de l’escalier (literally “mind of the staircase”), with the definite article le (“the”) at the beginning of the term elided to l’. It refers to a description of the phenomenon in the essay Paradoxe sur le comédien (Paradox of the Actor, completed 1778 and published 1830)[1] by the French encyclopedist and philosopher Denis Diderot (1713–1784). During a dinner at the home of the statesman Jacques Necker (1732–1804), Diderot was left speechless by a remark made to him. He wrote: « l’homme sensible, comme moi, tout entier à ce qu’on lui objecte, perd la tête et ne se retrouve qu’au bas de l’escalier » (“a sensitive man, such as myself, overwhelmed by the argument levelled against him, becomes confused and can only think clearly again at the bottom of the stairs”), that is, when one is already on the way out of the house.
Amanda Feery
Amanda Feery is one of Ireland’s most successful young composers. She has written many orchestral pieces, as well as music for stage and screen, including for Rouzbeh Rashidi’s Phantom Islands. She is currently working on an opera, as you can hear in this great podcast interview that was released today. We did this portrait beside the Royal Canal in Dublin.
There are more of my portraits of artists here.
Today's office
Photographing Colm Toibin earlier today as part of a series of portraits for the Gate theatre.
Irish Times article here
Me and the Da
John Horgan
I had a quick dive into the archives when I was back in Dublin, and came across this portrait I made of my father to accompany an interview in Cara magazine about one of his books. It’s one of my favourite pictures of him, along with this one:
Me and the Da
You can see other portraits of friends and family in this gallery.
The Ma and MacWeeney
Alen MacWeeney was my mother’s first boyfriend, but the relationship didn’t last after he moved to New York to become Richard Avedon’s assistant. He went on to have a stellar career as a photographer there, often coming back to Ireland to shoot a long-term project on the travelling community. I bought one of his prints of two traveller kids with the proceeds from the first script I ever sold, and it’s up in pride of place on the living room wall.
Alen MacWeeney photographed in Dublin, April 2019.
My mother Sara, aged 18, photographed by Alen. He added the image of himself looking at her and sent it from New York.
It was great to catch up with him when I was back in Dublin last week. He told me about the new biography of Avedon, saying “it reads like a thriller”. I’m halfway through its 700 pages, and he’s not wrong.
You can see some of my other pictures of artists in this gallery.
RIOT!
RIOT is a truly amazing show, filled with hope, love and revolution. I’ve seen it twice, and if I was in Ireland this week I’d go and see it again. The show has been on a sell-out world tour and is back to do a short run as part of the Dublin Dance Festival - get a ticket while you still can (available here).
It was a lot of fun doing these promo shots in Hang Dai, Dublin. Poster design, art direction, digital alchemy and general Pantification by the ridiculously talented Niall Sweeney.
You can see more of my pictures of performers in this gallery.
Seamus Larking
30 Hours in Dublin
A quick visit, but I was able to see something I often pine for when I’m in Paris.
I also got to pick up the Irish edition of Nicole Flattery’s new book, which I’m really looking forward to reading. Nicole is a brilliant, seriously funny writer. I met her shortly after arriving in Paris, and we did some portraits in the Centre Culturel Irlandais that have become her author pictures.
There’s another portrait of her in the ‘Writers’ gallery which is being used as the author picture in the UK edition of the book. It’s out today - highly recommended.