Photography and Ireland: Justin Carville

Outside of Ireland, ideas of Irish photography center around picturesque tourist views of the emerald green of the Irish landscape and photojournalistic representations of The Troubles. Justin Carville sets out in Photography and Ireland to change this perception, to give attention instead to depictions of its social transformations, political upheavals, and geographical reimaginings as a colony, nation, province, and sovereign state.

As Carville demonstrates, photography not only has documented these transformations but has also helped shape how Ireland is viewed, both by itself and the rest of the world. Photography and Irelandexplores the role of the photographic image in the colonial and postcolonial visual cultures of Ireland from the nineteenth century to the present day, and it emphasizes the transnational dimension of photography in Ireland, including foreign photographers who have contributed their images to the cultural imagination.

Accessibly written and accompanied by a wealth of images, including commercial portraits and landscapes, ethnographic photography, photojournalism, and documentary works, Photography and Ireland explores the formation of an indigenous photographic culture in Ireland through a number of interrelated themes.

Justin Carville is a lecturer in the history and theory of photography at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. He has written on the subject of photography and Ireland for journals including Photography and Culture, Source and The Journal of Popular Visual Culture.