Peacebuilding a shared Northern Irish society
Book review — The Wonder Wheel: Harold Feinstein (Centre de la photographie de Mougins)by Allan LEONARD28 November 2025 Harold Feinstein (1931–2015) is the most unjustly overlooked master of the post-war “New York school of photography”. A child prodigy whose work was acquired by MoMA at age 19, Feinstein was described by his peers and students... Continue Reading →
Book review — The Race that Changed Running (Doug MAYER)by Allan LEONARD14 November 2025 Trail runners know about UTMB — Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc — the 100-mile race around the mountain and its cols, covering three countries of France, Italy, and Switzerland. In a 208-page book, The Race that Changed Running: The Inside Story of UTMB,... Continue Reading →
Book Review — The Working Mind and Drawing Hand of Oliver Jeffersby Allan LEONARD17 October 2023 Oliver Jeffers is known for his charmingly illustrated children’s books, with a sense of play and wonder. He is less known for his fine art work, which is arguably underappreciated. This included me, and as Jeffers himself remarks in... Continue Reading →
Book review — Refugees and Forced Displacement in Northern Ireland’s Troubles (Niall GILMARTIN and Brendan Ciarán BROWNE) by Allan LEONARD 17 February 2023 Among the imagery associated with the Troubles, occasionally you see one of a van or car overladen with house furniture and hastily assembled parcels of clothing and personal possessions. These people were... Continue Reading →
Book review: Reporting beyond the Problem (eds Karen Hopkinson and Nicole Dahmen) by Allan LEONARD 9 September 2021 While there is a historic tradition of journalism that strives towards a common, public good (however defined), this has occurred in a paradigm of a professionalisation of journalism and a business model where editors responded to a... Continue Reading →
A concise, well written, and thoughtfully illustrated book about a master of surrealism. Learnt interesting insights about Rene Magritte. One can appreciate how aspects of his life affected his artistic work, including his family experiences, coming of age, and his (sometimes fraught) relationships with friends and peers. The book also provides good explanations of the... Continue Reading →
Book review — World Press Photo 2021 by Allan LEONARD 26 June 2021 World Press Photo 2021 is a book compilation of finalists of its annual competition. Entries are submitted by professional visual journalists. There were nine juries across the photo and digital storytelling contests. For the 2021 contest, general jury chair, Nayantara Gurury Kakshapati,... Continue Reading →
Book review: Irish Summers (Harry GRUYAERT) by Allan LEONARD 21 March 2021 Harry Gruyaert’s work is recognisable by its saturated colours of thoughtfully chosen hues. The interplay with light is also crucial. There are images in Irish Summers that exemplify such decisive moments, when colour and light come together to satisfy Gruyaert’s quest for sensual... Continue Reading →
Book review — Old Ireland in Colour (John Breslin & Sarah-Anne Buckley) by Allan LEONARD 14 March 2021 Old Ireland in Colour is an ongoing project of colourising black and white images by photographers in Ireland in the late 19th to early 20th century. The catalyst was John Breslin working on colourising some photos of... Continue Reading →
Book review — New Ways of Seeing (Grant Scott) by Allan LEONARD 21 February 2021 We read books of fiction and non-fiction, and may acquire a respect for how difficult it is to create such works ourselves. We are taught how to read the written word, and by practising reading, tend to appreciate its transformative... Continue Reading →
Book review: A Pocket History of Northern Ireland (Richard Killeen) by Allan LEONARD 29 December 2020 Occasionally I am approached for an image to be used in a book publication. Recently, this was for one that I made of a mural celebrating the television series, Derry Girls. Disclosure: I granted permission, with payment, for the... Continue Reading →
Book review — How I Make Photographs ( Joel Meyerowitz) by Allan LEONARD 18 October 2020 Joel Meyerowitz is a renowned street photographer, long before the term became a familiar recognised genre (or subgenre of documentary photography). Once working as an art director, after an encounter with photographer Robert Frank, he quit his job and... Continue Reading →