EDITORIAL:
Issue 6 — Winter 1995
Issue 6 — Winter 1995
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'FotoFeis', Scotland's International Festival of Photography, has just completed its second successful staging. We report from the finishing conference and review some of the work on show. This biannual event included the work of over one hundred photographers in venues throughout Scotland, based around the themes of mortality, migration and the city. The interest generated by this event with over half a million viewers marks it out as one that Ireland could consider following in an attempt to raise the profile of photography here. Maud Sulter's work 'ALBA' (shown at the festival) will arrive at The Ormeau Baths Gallery during January at the same time as the work from those connected with 'showing off' and the 'Portfolio Pages' in this issue of Source.
The Gallery of Photography in Dublin meanwhile finally opened its doors to a new purpose-built space in the Temple Bar. We include a review of Leo Regan's book which was published in conjunction with his show at the Gallery. The versatility of the space with its darkroom facilities and bookshop will, in combination with a progressive exhibition and education policy, ensure a diversity of photographic work available for everyone in Dublin. The excellence of this venue accentuates the need for a comparable photographic centre in the North.
November saw Dr. Robert Perks and Val Williams from the National Sound Archive, London attend a one day seminar in the Gallery. They are undertaking a unique initiative to record and archive the memories and life stories of photographers, picture editors, curators and teachers of photography. Beginning in 1989, the National Sound archive commissioned photographic historian Val Williams to embark upon a series of biographical interviews with major figures working in these areas in Britain from the 1920's. Each interview which lasts from four to six hours, is recorded to broadcast standard and explores the interviewee's life in depth. The seminar was organised in Dublin to examine the possibility of establishing a similar archive in Ireland.
With the exhibition of the Bechers' work in the IMMA (which Padraig Murphy covers in this issue) and the opening of Michael Schmidt's work in The Gallery of Photography Dublin, Ireland now hosts the work of arguably the two most important strands in German photography over the last thirty years, ranging from the objective to the subjective. A unique opportunity to view such differing photographic practices - exciting times!
— John Duncan