Just back from hearing Bill Kirk, Belfast-based photographer, talking about his work at City of Belfast Photographic Society. I'd been to see Bill's exhibition of pictures from Sandy Row in the early 70's at The Red Barn Gallery (behind TX Max and down the side of Rosemary Street 1st Presbyterian Church) last week and instantly fell in love with them. They capture a real sense of the time and place and reminded me a lot of my own childhood - I'll let the cat out of the bag - I was 10 in 1972 when many of the pictures were taken. As my youngest daughter Sarah (aged 8) said to me - "did you dress up for those photographs or were those really the clothes you wore then?"
Bill's talk was about his own family background and history as a photographer - this man has as good a grasp of attachment theory as I have, and I make a living as a psychologist. The issue of exploitation of subjects in documenary/street photography was also something Bill brought up, and it was interesting to hear how conflicted he still is about this, and about one of his pictures in particular.
Fascinating and thought provoking stuff from where I was coming from. Pointless talk and not enough "pretty pictures" if you happen to be a camera club dinosaur (photographicus nostalgicus). I'm a mutating mammal, personally.
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