Acquired

As the year comes to an end, I’m delighted to receive the news that my portrait of the artist Michael Kane has been acquired by the National Gallery.

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Holding

I did some publicity shots for “Holding”, a new ITV drama starring Conleth Hill and Siobhan McSweeney, directed by Kathy Burke.

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IVANA

 

My photograph of Ivana Bacik on the campaign trail.

I’ve just voted for Ivana Bacik in the Dublin Bay South by-election, and if you have a vote in the constituency please use it to help elect her. She’s a courageous, principled and progressive politician, and we need more people like her in the Dáil.

The Genius

I’m delighted to see that my friend Larissa Fasthorse has just been named a MacArthur Fellow, an award known as the “genius grant” to creatives. She’s a Native American playwright and former ballet dancer, who I met a few years ago in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig. It couldn’t happen to a nicer person.

Larissa Fasthorse with her husband, sculptor Edd Hogan

Larissa Fasthorse with her husband, sculptor Edd Hogan

You can see more of my portraits of writers in this gallery.

Marina De Van

Marina de Van is a very interesting French film director, screenwriter, novelist and actor.  She was a great subject to shoot, making it a challenge to pick just one image - I did eventually, and it’s in the “Artists” gallery.

Her new site has just been launched, and offers acting coaching and hypnosis in Paris.

Amelia and The Bloods

My friend Amelia Stein is one of Ireland’s best photographers, and I did a portrait of her recently to mark the occasion of her new exhibition “The Bloods” being shown in the newly reopened Butler Gallery in Kilkenny.

With a slight homage to Mapplethorpe

With a slight homage to Mapplethorpe

This is Amelia’s preferred image, which I can understand because she looks like such a boss.

This is Amelia’s preferred image, which I can understand because she looks like such a boss.

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The show is a series of portraits of members of the Defence Forces from the 3 Inf Bn, known as The Bloods, based in James Stephens Barracks, Kilkenny. It’s great work, and you can book (free) tickets here.

There are more of my portraits of artists in this gallery.

Annaghmakerrig People

Some of the great people I’ve met in Annaghmakerrig over the years.

Robbie McDonald, who will be leaving next January after ten years as director of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig. The post is currently being advertised

Dancer and choreographer Emma O’Kane

Emma O’Kane in action

Native American playwright Larissa Fasthorse with her husband, sculptor Edd Hogan

Author Diana Souhami

Painter Roisin McGuigan

Sheila Pratschke, the Centre’s second director

There are more photographs of Annaghmakerrig here, as well as some more artists here, writers here and performers here.

Phuong Le

An out-take of film writer Phuong Le. You can read her piece “Feeling Seen: Whose Apocalypse Now?” here, and there are more of my portraits of writers here.

The puppeteer of Notre Dame

Irma and Pascal photographed in Paris, November 2017.

Irma and Pascal photographed in Paris, November 2017.

Pascal and Irma Delamaire were friends of my mothers for many years, although I only met them for the first time shortly after I moved to Paris in 2017. Pascal and I quickly discovered that we’d much in common, including that earlier in life we’d both been puppeteers. My fledgling puppetry career was over before I left my teens, but he’d gone on to perform for many years, ending up on the best pitch in Paris – performing classical puppetry from inside a booth directly opposite Notre Dame.  When he looked up during the show, all he could see beyond the puppets in his hands was the two bell towers of Notre Dame, and it gave him a great sense of connection with all the other puppeteers who’d performed in the same spot, with the exact same view, for hundreds and hundreds of years. I love that.