The Photo Album of Ireland – Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh

10 July – 09 August – 11am – 5pm daily – Closed Mondays

Opens Thursday 09 July 7pm

The Gallery of Photography Ireland presents: The Photo Album of Ireland. Photo albums give a fascinating insight into our private histories. They can reveal details about how people lived and worked that official historical records often overlook. The Photo Album of Ireland project digitises and shares cherished family photographs and private photo collections. This emerging, democratic photographic archive provides an accessible record of our rich social history. It is a celebration of ordinary life as viewed from the perspective of private individuals.

This project invites you to explore the wealth of ordinary and extraordinary photographs – from informal snapshots, studio portraits and ‘official’ photographs through to substantial individual archives – many seen here for the first time. Spanning the entire history of analogue photography, it includes rare ambrotypes and dageurreotypes from the 1850s, Victorian cartes-de-visites, box brownie photographs, family albums, colour instamatic snapshots, polaroids and photobooth selfies from the 1980s.

A cross-section of over 40 individuals and families from all over Ireland have contributed to date. You can follow the Gallery of Photography’s ongoing research on the project website and through the series of programmed events, exhibitions and outdoor projections around Ireland.

The works for the Sirius Arts Centre exhibition have been selected and organised by Brian Mac Domhnaill.

The Photo Album of Ireland Touring Project is funded by an Arts Council Touring Award, Gallery of Photography Ireland and Monaghan County Council. Organised in collaboration with touring partners: Monaghan County Council Heritage & Arts Office, The Hunt Museum, Limerick, Donegal County Museum, Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Galway City Museum and Áras Éanna, Inis Oírr.

http://www.photoalbumofireland.com