This is my portrait of musician Breanndán O' Beaglaoich, which was taken as part of a series of portraits of artists-in-residence at the Irish Cultural Centre, Paris. He’s featured in an upcoming RTE documentary 'The Man with the Moving House’, which documents Begley’s fifteen year battle with Kerry County Council to build a small traditional home in his ancestral village on the Dingle Peninsula. The film airs on Thursday, 25th August at 10.15pm on RTÉ ONE, and you can see more of my en résidence portraits here.
Atelier Horgan is open for business
I’ve just opened an atelier / daylight studio and am looking forward to doing lots of good work in it.
Read MoreNo T Like a Joe T
These are my portraits of Joe Dolan from the 90's, and comedian Justine Stafford has just made one into a t-shirt with all proceeds going to the Irish Hospice Foundation. You can get one here.
The words making up the image spell “ No show like a Joe show”
Crow on a Fence*
We shot the bar image in Les Pipos, where Gainsbourg used to sing before he was famous.
Read MoreLOUISAHHH!!!
These are my portraits of LOUISAHHH!!!, the queen of French industrial techno. She's just announced her first album, The Practice of Freedom, which is available to pre-order here:
MIX TAPES
I've been going through a box of old cassettes, some of which date back to the late Seventies, and am photographing a few of my favourites before I throw them out. I have a tape player with a digital output but the sound quality isn't very good, although it is great to hear snippets of radio announcers in between the songs I taped off the radio. So rather than digitising the contents, I've started an ongoing playlist as a memento, with each cassette in roughly chronological order and the songs in the order that they appear on the tapes. Some of them immediately transport me back to working late at night in the darkroom, and to other very significant moments in my life, and anyone who ever worked in the Lad Lane or Pembroke Lane studios will find a lot of the music very familiar…
You can listen to the ever-growing playlist via this link.
Mixes
I felt the need and started a Soothing Mix
Read MoreI Can See Liam Now
I’ve been working on a series of portraits of artists-in-residence commissioned by the Centre Culturel Irlandais, and after making one today of Liam Ó Maonlaí we recreated the first photograph we did together. It was for a poster for the Hothouse Flower’s first single, released in 1987, which was neither yesterday nor the day before. He’s still looking great.
Tangled Roots & Twisted Tales
I’ve known Ed McGinley for a long time, even before I photographed his band The Dixons in the 90’s. It’s great to see his latest album Tangled Roots & Twisted Tales described as a “slow-burning pleasure” in a recent Irish Times review. You can buy it here.
Ed McGinley in NCAD, Dublin.
There are more of my portraits of performers here.
The First Irish Gay Song
The Radiators photographed in the Dublin docklands in 1989. L-R Pete Holidai, Mark Megaray, Philip Chevron and Jimmy Crashe.
“Under Clery’s Clock” was Ireland’s first openly gay-themed song. It was written by Philip Chevron, the lead singer and guitarist with Ireland’s greatest unsung punk band, The Radiators from Space.
I loved their album “Ghostown”, but only got to see them play once before they broke up in 1981 and Philip moved to London, later joining the Pogues. They reformed briefly in the late ‘80’s to play an Aids benefit in Dublin (I was there) and to record the song. Steve Averill* (a.k.a Steve Rapid - the band’s original singer, and the first person to hire me as a photographer) was designing the single cover and we found a crumbling warehouse down the docks for a location. Though I’d worked with many bands by then, I was particularly thrilled to be shooting the Radiators.
Cover shot for the re-issue of “Ghostown”. You can see the rain in the background.
“Under Clery’s Clock”, described as “an exquisitely haunting lament about two teenage boys who arrange a rendezvous under the Dublin landmark of the title” was a coming out for Philip as well. Sadly he died in 2013, but I think part of his spirit will be back on the Dublin streets later today as the biggest ever Pride march passes Clery’s clock on O’Connell Street.
*Steve is currently posting a great series of pictures and stories of the early Dublin rock scene on his Instagram.
Mellow Tonics
I had great fun photographing the Mellow Tonics choir rehearsing and performing in the beautiful chapel of the Centre Culturel Irlandais - they do a fantastic version of The Stunning’s “Brewing Up A Storm”.
You can see more portraits of performers in this gallery.
Angel
The very lovely actor and singer Angel Hannigan. She knew my mother from Nick's coffee shop in Ranelagh, and sang an absolutely beautiful version of Nick Cave's "Into My Arms" at the funeral.
Two Irish Artists in Paris
Aindrias De Staic, storyteller, actor and musician.
Macdara Smith, artist and musician.
KWOO
Kwoo photographed in Dublin, May 2019, using this filter.
Last time I was back in Dublin I did some portraits of my neighbour Kwoo. She’s a poet, animator, performer, resident DJ for The Demented Goddess and all-round interesting person. You can follow her on Twitter here, and hear her mixes here.
Caoimhe photographed in Dublin, May 2019
Low!
“You look like the kind of people who probably bump into each other a lot...maybe at the same library” - Alan Sparhawk of Low, nailing the audience demographic at last night‘s gig in Rouen.
Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker
I’ve loved Low’s melancholy songs, distorted guitars and eerie harmonies for some time, so it was a real treat to get to see them live.
Steve Garrington
They didn’t disappoint, with this being a highlight of the evening.
Never too loud
Teeth solo!
Here’s my favourite song from their new album, a classic, and a great cover.
Goodnight Normandy!
Trans / Punk
I shot some portraits recently of Irish transgender people for Michele-Ann Kelly’s Transition, Family and Me project. When Sarah R Phillips and I started talking about music it turned out we’d both been to many of the seminal punk gigs in Dublin. I asked if she’d seen the legendary Slaughter & The Dogs play in Belfield, and she told me not only was she there, she still goes to see them every chance she gets. Respect.
Today is the International Transgender Day of Visibility.
What's Wrong With Dreaming?
River City People promo video for 'What's Wrong with Dreaming?'
I barely had a clue what I was doing. Talking to Jarlath recently reminded me of this promo, my very first outing as a lighting cameraman. It came out alright, though- I think wobbly cam was a thing back then. I connected with Siobhan again years later, and we got to hang out in Nashville when I was there to shoot a portrait for the So Far book.
Saw a great comment on the Youtube video, which I just had to respond to…
Behind the scenes with the Gloaming
After shooting the Gloaming ahead of their show in the beautiful Théâtre de l'Athéné, I stayed on to get some informal portraits during the rehearsal.
The Gloaming, Théâtre de l'Athéné, Paris.
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh.
Iarla Ó Lionáird.
Thomas Bartlett, aka Doveman.
Caoimhín’s socks.