Akihiko Okamura’s photographs show people persisting with some semblance of routine during wartime, when the unreal and absurd invade the everyday, writes Stephanie McBride
‘The official account is only an account,’ poet Ciaran Carson once observed about the Troubles in the North of Ireland. ‘Poetry asks about the truth, which is never black-and-white.’ Breaking with photojournalism’s black-and-white conventions, acclaimed Japanese photographer Akihiko Okamura used Kodachrome colour to capture those dark times, creating images unlike other representations of the North back then.
While other international photojournalists would fly in on assignments, Okamura was already living in Ireland at that time, building up a body of work that is striking yet largely unseen until now. After years of research with an international team of historians, curators and publishers, Photo Museum Ireland has created ‘The Memories of Others’, a celebration of Okamura’s Irish work. The project includes a photobook (which received a Special Mention at this year’s Rencontres d’Arles Book Awards), a documentary film and a touring exhibition.
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Liam Belton recalls the protests in the National College of Art between 1967 and 1971 that led to the formation of an autonomous board to oversee the running of the college. These developments, along with other major events of the period, are encapsulated in his artwork Homage to Paint and Protest
Themes of the natural world and climate chaos lie at the heart of Caoimhín Gaffney’s exhibition, writes Eamonn Maxwell
Vivienne Roche’s approach is formally beautiful and seemingly straightforward in its address, but opens onto profound and unsettling ideas about time, loss and persistence, writes Sarah Kelleher
