Bobby Sands died on May 5, 1981 at 1:17 in the morning. Bobby Sands was previously arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison for possession of firearms. On March 1, 1981, he began a hunger strike followed by nine other political prisoners who were members of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and the INLA (Irish National Liberation Army).
Their demands: to obtain the status of political prisoners to which they are entitled. They all died, the last one in almost general indifference.
“At that time, I was a freelance photographer at the Sipa press agency, one of the three major photographic press agencies in Paris in the 1980s. I had the profile of the determined young reporter “risque-tout“, that suited the riot situation in Northern Ireland, so I was naturally sent on the Londonderry clashes in April 1981. I stayed there for three weeks and returned several times during the same year.
Those weeks that I lived in Derry and Belfast, living with the rioters of Catholic neighbourhoods, photographing the tension, despair, faith and courage of the Irish people, using the camera as a weapon to serve their cause, persuaded me forever of the validity of photographic witness as an instrument of memory, emotion, reflection, guarantees of a free and democratic world”. Yan Morvan
It turned out that Sorj Chalandon, a great writer, lover and defender of Ireland and just causes, sent by French newspaper Libération, was also in Belfast at the same time, and he offered us a text written in 2004 and published in Libération, on this intense moment.
Extract: “Respect the silence”, said our guide. It was the night of May 7, 1981. We were in Twinbrook, a Catholic district in south-west Belfast. On street corners, in little gardens, against walls, leaning against the orange streetlights, sitting in groups of four in gloomy cars, women and men were keeping watch. IRA fighters, friends, kids with tears in their eyes, young clenched teeth, mothers in bathrobes, neighbours. The Sandses’ house was made of brick. Just like the others. With a black ribbon hanging over the doorstep. “Don’t talk”, said the man. He knocked on the door. A tiny wallpapered entrance, and a staircase leading to the rooms. Warmth, home. These familiar places where we think we have life ahead of us. Doors, then more doors afterwards, and rooms that always end up crossing paths with death. And we will have time. Time to do it. All the time. And then the living room doors open. And then Bobby Sands is there. What do we know about him? In fact, nothing. Or very little.
Brassai (1899–1984) was the first and is still the most famous photographer to chronicle Paris after dark. Born in Hungary, he came to the French capital in 1924, working first as a journalist and then embracing photography, but it was the Paris of the 1930s that forms the bedrock of his body of work.
Walking the city’s streets at night, Brassai captured a previously unseen world on camera. He shows us every face and every facet, from tough guys and showgirls to prostitutes and pleasure-seekers, from the bustling cafés and dance halls to the stillness of deserted streets and mist-shrouded monuments. Through his eyes, Paris becomes a world of shadows, in which light, the prerequisite for any photograph, is reduced to dimly lit windows, streetlamps in the fog, or reflections on a rain-soaked pavement.
This book brings together some of the best-known images from Brassai’s classic Paris After Dark and The Secret Paris of the 30’s, showcasing them alongside previously unpublished photos and archive material. It places his work in its historical and artistic context, analyzing the unique nature of his photographic vision: part reportage, part social document, part poetic exploration. 296 illustrations, 214 in duotone
Tibet has suffered extreme political turmoil and upheaval over the last 50 odd years. Occupied in 1950, Red Guards destroyed thousands of official buildings and holy places during the Cultural Revolution, and religious freedom and traditional education are still severely under threat.
Due to the strength of Tibetan faith in Buddha, in the Dalai Lama, and against the odds, many buildings have been reconstructed, their devotion and belief remain extraordinarily strong. Buddhism permeates every aspect of a Tibetan’s life, whether living in Tibet or in exile in Nepal, India or the United States.
A magnificent and time-stopping work, The Path to Buddha is divided into five parts, in which we see the monks in animated discussion, meditation and prayer; and we follow the devout believers on their arduous journeys to prayer. The two main chapters are interspersed with sections of portraits of this proud and dignified people whose own innate sense of their own being can be seen in the simplest of things, such as the way they dress and adorn themselves.
BOBBY SANDS YAN MORVAN
€65.00
1 in stock
Description
Bobby Sands died on May 5, 1981 at 1:17 in the morning.
Bobby Sands was previously arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison for possession of firearms. On March 1, 1981, he began a hunger strike followed by nine other political prisoners who were members of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and the INLA (Irish National Liberation Army).
Their demands: to obtain the status of political prisoners to which they are entitled. They all died, the last one in almost general indifference.
“At that time, I was a freelance photographer at the Sipa press agency, one of the three major photographic press agencies in Paris in the 1980s. I had the profile of the determined young reporter “risque-tout“, that suited the riot situation in Northern Ireland, so I was naturally sent on the Londonderry clashes in April 1981. I stayed there for three weeks and returned several times during the same year.
Those weeks that I lived in Derry and Belfast, living with the rioters of Catholic neighbourhoods, photographing the tension, despair, faith and courage of the Irish people, using the camera as a weapon to serve their cause, persuaded me forever of the validity of photographic witness as an instrument of memory, emotion, reflection, guarantees of a free and democratic world”. Yan Morvan
It turned out that Sorj Chalandon, a great writer, lover and defender of Ireland and just causes, sent by French newspaper Libération, was also in Belfast at the same time, and he offered us a text written in 2004 and published in Libération, on this intense moment.
Extract:
“Respect the silence”, said our guide. It was the night of May 7, 1981. We were in Twinbrook, a Catholic district in south-west Belfast. On street corners, in little gardens, against walls, leaning against the orange streetlights, sitting in groups of four in gloomy cars, women and men were keeping watch. IRA fighters, friends, kids with tears in their eyes, young clenched teeth, mothers in bathrobes, neighbours. The Sandses’ house was made of brick. Just like the others. With a black ribbon hanging over the doorstep.
“Don’t talk”, said the man. He knocked on the door. A tiny wallpapered entrance, and a staircase leading to the rooms. Warmth, home. These familiar places where we think we have life ahead of us. Doors, then more doors afterwards, and rooms that always end up crossing paths with death. And we will have time. Time to do it. All the time. And then the living room doors open. And then Bobby Sands is there.
What do we know about him? In fact, nothing. Or very little.
Additional information
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Walking the city’s streets at night, Brassai captured a previously unseen world on camera. He shows us every face and every facet, from tough guys and showgirls to prostitutes and pleasure-seekers, from the bustling cafés and dance halls to the stillness of deserted streets and mist-shrouded monuments. Through his eyes, Paris becomes a world of shadows, in which light, the prerequisite for any photograph, is reduced to dimly lit windows, streetlamps in the fog, or reflections on a rain-soaked pavement.
This book brings together some of the best-known images from Brassai’s classic Paris After Dark and The Secret Paris of the 30’s, showcasing them alongside previously unpublished photos and archive material. It places his work in its historical and artistic context, analyzing the unique nature of his photographic vision: part reportage, part social document, part poetic exploration. 296 illustrations, 214 in duotone
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Due to the strength of Tibetan faith in Buddha, in the Dalai Lama, and against the odds, many buildings have been reconstructed, their devotion and belief remain extraordinarily strong. Buddhism permeates every aspect of a Tibetan’s life, whether living in Tibet or in exile in Nepal, India or the United States.
A magnificent and time-stopping work, The Path to Buddha is divided into five parts, in which we see the monks in animated discussion, meditation and prayer; and we follow the devout believers on their arduous journeys to prayer. The two main chapters are interspersed with sections of portraits of this proud and dignified people whose own innate sense of their own being can be seen in the simplest of things, such as the way they dress and adorn themselves.