Photography essays
Transmitting photographic energy of colour and love: Hannah Starkey’s Northern Ireland peace women by Allan LEONARD 4 June 2023 As part of the Belfast Photo Festival and in partnership with the Ulster Museum, artist Hannah Starkey gave a talk about her previous work and current exhibition on display, Principled and Revolutionary: Northern Ireland’s Peace Women. … Continue reading Transmitting photographic energy of colour and love: Hannah Starkey’s Northern Ireland peace women
“In my imagination, it was true”: Margins of Excess exhibition artist talk by Max Pinckers by Allan LEONARD 14 June 2019 As part of the Belfast Photo Festival, Belfast Exposed is hosting an exhibition of Margins of Excess, by Max Pinckers. The artist gave a talk about this project in the gallery, describing how he … Continue reading “In my imagination, it was true”: Margins of Excess exhibition talk by Max Pinckers
Belfast Exposed exhibition talk: Post Truth: The new normal of the undefined, abstract, and make believe by Allan LEONARD 30 May 2019 Belfast Exposed is hosting a group exhibition displaying the work of graduate students of the MFA Photography programme at Ulster University (UU). The theme is “Post Truth”, which aims to explore how we … Continue reading Belfast Exposed exhibition talk: Post Truth: The new normal of the undefined, abstract, and make believe
Doing our part: Dealing with bonfires by Allan LEONARD 9 May 2019 Greater Shankill Alternatives, which is part of a co-ordinating initiative on restorative justice across Northern Ireland, hosted a workshop session that explored various aspects of the tradition of bonfires and the organisation’s approaches of engagement with groups who construct these structures for annual … Continue reading Doing our part: Dealing with bonfires
Decisive moments at Belfast City Hospital: A street photography exhibition by Tuck Goh by Allan LEONARD 17 January 2019 At the Tower Gallery in City Hospital, I arrived with some time to spare in advance of the official start of an exhibition of street photography by Tuck Goh. I took a seat and watched passers-by … Continue reading Decisive moments at Belfast City Hospital
SEVERE: Interview with Martin Seeds by Allan LEONARD 5 November 2018 A new body of work by Belfast-born artist, Martin Seeds, has just been shown as part of the Brighton Photo Fringe. The works are an extension of Seeds’ application of landscape and allegory. Or put another way, our political landscape -- literally and figuratively. … Continue reading SEVERE: Interview with Martin Seeds
The Lost Moment exhibition: The provocation of 1968 by Allan LEONARD 27 September 2018 In the year 1968, there were street protests and marches in Belfast, Berlin, Derry/Londonderry, Paris, Prague, Selma and beyond. Some of the most powerful captured images and video clips are on display at The Lost Moment exhibition at the Gallery of … Continue reading The Lost Moment exhibition: The provocation of 1968
Transforming memories of war into memories of peace: Imagine Peace by Allan LEONARD 18 September 2018 Imagine Peace is a photography exhibition launched at Belfast Exposed as part of Good Relations Week, featuring artists Ingrid Guyon and Antonio Amador with their Colombian peacebuilding subjects. The exhibition is part of a creative peace project called “FUTyoURES”, … Continue reading Transforming memories of war into memories of peace: Imagine Peace
SmugMug+Flickr: An esprit de corps? by Allan LEONARD 21 April 2018 Flickr has announced that it is being acquired by SmugMug. At least that provides an answer to the question of what would happen next, after Flickr was spared the sunsetting list but not endorsed like Yahoo’s purchase of Tumblr. And a better outcome than … Continue reading SmugMug+Flickr: An espirit de corps?
Film review: Photo City by Allan LEONARD 13 April 2018 Photo City is a documentary film by John Murphy and Traolach Ó Murchú, about the story of Rochester, New York, becoming the Silicon Valley of photography, with the clustering of image-based companies such as Xerox, Bausch and Lomb, and Kodak. And how this industry has … Continue reading Film review — Photo City
Photo Detectives: An exhibition of community-researched Irish photo history by Allan LEONARD 6 January 2018 Photo Detectives is an exhibition by the National Library of Ireland (NLI) at its National Photographic Archive site in Dublin, of a set of archive images that online Flickr users have assisted with research and providing illuminating further information. The … Continue reading Photo Detectives: An exhibition of community-researched Irish photo history
Mr Turner’s apples by Allan LEONARD 27 September 2017 The Allison Collection held at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) consists of about 1,550 photographs and 34 volumes from Allison Photographic Studios between circa 1900 and 1950. The studios were established by Herbert Thackwray Allison, who came to Ireland in 1881 with his … Continue reading Mr Turner’s apples
