The Visible and the Invisible: Photographic Works by Patrick Hogan, Ailbhe Ní Bhriain and David Creedon

Abstract

The three series of photographs under scrutiny waver between the documentary and the poetic, between realism and the imaginary. The result of long projects and research, they visually condense the experience of exile: they picture abandoned houses, or ruins, which testify to Irish emigration and to the scars it has left in the landscape as well as in people’s minds. Despite their minute realism, these places partially covered with dust foreground what is not there and materialize time. Conceived as series, they induce an elliptical narrative. Akin to still-lives, they can be construed in the pictorial tradition of the memento mori. Indeed, by challenging the indexicality of photographs, digital photography has re-opened a dialogue with painting and the imaginary. Rather than reproducing places, the three works envision space.

Keywords

• photography
• digital photography
• emigration
• exile
• ruin
• memory