Stephanie McBride looks at the work of Dublin-born photographer Alen MacWeeney
Stephanie McBride looks at the work of Dublin-born photographer Alen MacWeeney Alen MacWeeney’s most recent book, Dublin Photographs 1963: A Pandemic Mirror 2020, is an engaging collection of images of a bygone Dublin and Dubliners. ‘I’m not interested in the decorative, or dramatic, or ironic. I only intend to express people in true moments of their lives’ he says. Born in Dublin in 1939, MacWeeney began work at sixteen at The Irish Times and has been based in New York for most of his career. In the tradition of Walker Evans, Robert Frank and Richard Avedon – to whom he was apprenticed early in his career – MacWeeney works across documentary, portraiture, fashion and street photography. Working with Avedon in Paris and New York, he began his extensive career in commercial and editorial photography for Vogue, The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. Besides commercial assignments, he has also produced acclaimed personal projects.
Alen MacWeeney’s most recent book, Dublin Photographs 1963: A Pandemic Mirror 2020, is an engaging collection of images of a bygone Dublin and Dubliners. ‘I’m not interested in the decorative, or dramatic, or ironic. I only intend to express people in true moments of their lives’ he says. Born in Dublin in 1939, MacWeeney began work at sixteen at The Irish Times and has been based in New York for most of his career. In the tradition of Walker Evans, Robert Frank and Richard Avedon – to whom he was apprenticed early in his career – MacWeeney works across documentary, portraiture, fashion and street photography. Working with Avedon in Paris and New York, he began his extensive career in commercial and editorial photography for Vogue, The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. Besides commercial assignments, he has also produced acclaimed personal projects.
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