a history of photography in ireland?

positivenote

Hi all,
im looking for recommendations on where to start researching the history of photography in Ireland. I have come across alot on the development and history of the medium itself, and specifically the domestic presence of photography... which is what im hoping to concentrate on. But I am struggling to find anything localized to Ireland. If anyone could recommend any specific texts or where to start I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks

Lyaiera

I have no specific notion of somewhere to begin, but I'd be really interested in anything you come up with.

I suppose the best places to start would be the universities. Photography was an extremely expensive pursuit (it still sort of is) so I'd imagine that universities would have the type of person who could afford to do photography attending. I'd imagine there's two routes, first of all there's the actual libraries themselves for research. I'd imagine you could find quite a few publications on documenting the country through the librarians. If you get an outside readers card from an NUIG Uni you'll get access to all the others' stores. (And I've found librarians are generally waiting for a really interesting research challenge, so could very well want to help you.)

The other way through the unis would be that they probably have their own internal documentation process and history process. I wouldn't be surprised if the libraries manage this on a catalogue basis as well. If any significant photographers went through the university they'd have records of them their. If you're going for vernacular photography you could look at the likes of art unis in Dublin?

Ben D Bus

You could try the National Photographic Archive in Temple Bar. It's part of the National Library of Ireland.

http://www.nli.ie/en/photographs-introduction.aspx

DaireQuinlan

There's also the National Library of Ireland archive on Flickr Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/ Though it's a bit unstructured.

VinDevo

A good book about early Irish Photography

Photography in Ireland - The Nineteenth Century, Chandler, Edward (ISBN: 0946130345 / 0-946130-34-5)

greener greene

Justin Carville recently released a book about the history of photography in Ireland. It should be available in the gallery of photography book shop.