The Copper House Gallery, off Synge St, Dublin Mon-Fri 10am-5pm Until Feb 1 thecopperhousegallery.com01-4784088
Among many fine arts graduates who concentrated on photography as a medium, Amy Hanrahan at Limerick School of Art and Design impressed, not least because she resisted any temptation to be showily impressive. Rather, Hanrahan took a straightforward subject – the day-to-day, inner workings of a family – and devised a slow, careful, thoughtful approach to it.
There’s a retrospective quality to Hanrahan’s black-and-white images, but they are not nostalgic or ironic. Collectively they amount to a nuanced photo essay evoking and describing a distinctive world in a considered, almost literary way.
The Biblical title was used by writer Laura Albert under the pseudonym of JT LeRoy for her 1999 book of short stories about a traumatic childhood. Hanrahan’s work won her the 2012 Fire Propeller Award for final year photography students.
Can't see that? Catch this:Basil Blackshaw: Blackshaw at 80 Royal Hibernian Academy, Gallagher Gallery, Dublin Until Feb 24
AIDAN DUNNE
