Kevin O’Farrell Photographer

ABOUT

1977–1979: Gwent College of Higher Education, Newport, Documentary Photography, two-year course, received a Diploma in Documentary Photography, under David Hurn and John Charity.

I had spent a lot of time preparing a portfolio of pictures, and a large A1 folder of work to show at the interview. ( It caused so much grief carrying it on the train down to South Wales), neither David or John actually looked at my work for more than one second! we talked about what I wanted to do and how and what I wanted to photograph, luckily I must have said something right, thankfully they saw something that interested them in me and was extremely lucky to have been accepted onto the course. I was seventeen years of age at the interview and just eighteen when I started, it was to be the fourth year of running the course and at that time, I was the youngest to have been accepted onto the course and stayed the full two years, (at that time you could do one or two years).

It was an incredible experience. It was the first time in my life I was doing exactly what I wanted to do, I was so lucky to discover that at an early age. Having done a foundation in Art and Design before going to Newport, I knew the type of photography I wanted to pursue and Newport was the only place to be. Both David Hurn and John Charity were incredible teachers, I could not give them enough praise. It was an inspirational place, and the ethos and passion for photography, has remained an important part of my life for the last forty years.

John Charity was an amazing photographer, teacher, and inspirational friend who made me understand that quality of life and the way one lived and worked was so important, which led myself moving back to live in Ireland in 1980 (First generation returned emigrant, born in Kenya to Irish parents, who originally came from Banagher in Co Offaly. ( I did return to Ireland only for a year when I was one year old and then my parents moved to the UK where I lived until returning to live full-time in Ireland in 1980).

Freelance Documentary Photographer, from 1980 onwards based in West Cork.

As a photographer, I have had portfolios of my work published in The British Journal of Photography, Amateur Photographer Magazine, Creative Camera, Irish Times, and Wooden Boat Magazine.

I have Exhibited work throughout Ireland and Europe and was really lucky to have had my work exhibited as solo shows at the Side Gallery, Newcastle UK, and the Corner House in Manchester.

I am really pleased to be one of the original photographers chosen to be in the ‘FACING BRITAIN’  photography exhibition in Germany, showcasing important representatives of British documentary practice. It includes two projects of mine Bathing Places and Northern Ireland Belfast. The show focuses on the period between 1963 and 2020. Starting at Museum Goch Germany in 2020, Kunsthalle  Darmstadt  Sept 2021,  Mönchehaus Museum Goslar 20 Feb - 1 May 2022, and Museum for Photography Krakow  16 June - 18 Sept this unique exhibition, produced by the IKS and curated by Ralph Goertz.  http://www.iks-medienarchiv.de/en/exhibition2.php?id=18

‘‘Photography is the only means of expression that fixes forever the precise yet changing moment. Photographers deal insights that are continually vanishing, and of course, once they have vanished, there is no getting them back. It’s why photography is important’’. (David Hurn)

How you put that into practice, is what makes photographers and their work so different and special, It is this precise element that is lacking in photography these days, documentary photography is becoming very indifferent and not unique in what is been recorded.

In very simple terms Documentary photography captures the essence of a subject by recording it through a series of images, my photographs are taken to be viewed together in groups, forming a narrative informed by my interest and enjoyment of spending time with people whom I am photographing, occasionally from a series a photograph manages to capture all the elements in one picture that is able to stand on its own, without reference to the others, I find when working on a project, permission and access to photograph uninterrupted over an extended time frame is so important.

As Bill Jay commented “... In order to photograph with any degree of continuous passion, you must have a fascination for the subject, otherwise, you cannot sustain an interest in the act of creation for a long enough period of time in which to make any insightful or original statement about it ”.

My work involves spending most of my time impartially observing how events unfold in front of the camera, I especially enjoy photographing people and how they relate to their environments and each other, people at work or leisure, people are aware I am taking pictures of them, I work with/use limited equipment, I usually find when people are involved in an activity, they forget about my presence and so the work/life continues without being influenced by my camera. In effect, this practice means that more time is spent standing around waiting for events to unfold than actually taking photographs.

And so the advice of my course director David Hurn, given to me as a young student of photography in Newport, South Wales still holds true – ‘‘always have a good pair of shoes’’! 

Hopefully, my work has improved and my vision matured over the years, learning from my own personal experiences along the way, I react to the world now having confidence gained over time.

I did take a break from photography to raise my family, as it was so difficult to earn a living as a photographer in West Cork, without moving to a large city. I always had an interest in woodwork and other crafts and set up a business for a number of years restoring and making traditional country furniture, it was a way of continuing my creative skills but with a different end product, that people actually wanted to buy. It was the love of wood and boats that got me back into photography and started photographing again at Hegarty’s boatyard.

My equipment has always been very simple, often I work with only one camera and one lens, with that you can really concentrate on the picture-taking process and not worry about whether one has the correct choice of lens or not, this has become easier with digital cameras.

I find modern digital cameras are brilliant, (the freedom of no film and processing in darkrooms) and also have the option of Colour, B&W and any ISO different in every frame and in the same camera body, which simplifies the picture-taking process. The only problem I have with digital cameras is that manufacturers keep adding too much technology into cameras, way too many menus and options, occasionally leading to grief when working and accidentally changing a setting, then taking hours to work out how to reinstate back to my specs. Just give me a large clear bright viewfinder, usable manual focus, manual shutter speed, aperture and ISO, and an ever-lasting battery… I would be really very happy!

In my early work, it was all in B&W, now that colour is so accessible, in that I can take control of the whole process to output in print form. I don’t think in B&W or Colour, I just concentrate on what’s happening in front of the camera and enjoy the interaction with my subjects. Depending on what I am photographing,  I decide in the final edit whether to go with B&W or Colour. I do think if truth be told I prefer working in B&W maybe that has a lot to do with the amount of film I used years ago. The colour at times can be very distracting, especially when working under different lighting conditions by producing colour casts, so it is good to have options, I think both can work well when shown side by side.

One major reason to still photograph in B&W is that I think it concentrates the viewer to look at the photograph in a slightly different way and to concentrate on the structure and composition of the photograph. It’s certainly a part of photography’s heritage and that is very important, which needs to be respected and continued.  I don’t go along with the idea documentary photography has to be in black and white or the world is in colour so we have to photograph only in colour to represent it. It is good to see photographers working with both. I do think it is important for a photographer to have total control over the whole photographic process and this includes printing your own photographs, this is easier to achieve with patience using digital technology and once mastered can produce beautiful prints, better than ones printed in a darkroom and the process is far more environmentally friendly, with no nasty darkroom chemicals to mix and dispose with.

The only thing I miss from analogue days is not having at the end of the shoot, loads of contact sheets with a chinagraph pencil and a cup of tea, oh! the pleasure of looking through contacts, by comparison looking at a computer screen I do find it’s more difficult to edit pictures now.

Photoshop or the digital processing of images has received bad press, in that people now distrust photography because they think photographs can be manipulated so easily and are? but I think that was always the case, a clever technician could always change the appearance of a photograph, or a photographer could change the viewpoint of a photograph (by what is included in the frame or not? Also a photographers bias in what he thinks about the subject can alter the viewers view). Documentary Photographers have an obligation to produce photographs that are true to what they observe.

I use Photoshop as an enlarger for dodging and burning and correcting exposure and colour balance. It seems like I  now spend all my time in front of a computer instead of standing all day in a darkroom full of unpleasant chemicals, (I must admit, it was magic to see a print forming in a developer tray in front of you, but so annoying/difficult trying to reproduce that image a number of times to be consistent). (Print sales).

Using digital cameras the picture-taking process and thought are still the same as with film, You have a viewfinder, which still enables control over what you include/exclude, your ability to move around the subject and position yourself, and finally the most important part when you press the shutter button. The act of taking photographs has not changed, technically it has for the better. How we view the world and how the world reacts to us certainly has!

Documentary photography is a very accessible medium and it's simply about promoting issues and raising awareness for the things that affect and unite us all or photographing something we love, all it requires is compassion and understanding of what one is seeing and recording faithfully what you find interesting.

Sometimes finding a subject/project to photograph can be difficult, it is very difficult to find an original idea left to explore, I often find inspiration from looking at other photographers’ work, and then try to put my own take on it, everything that can be, has been photographed at this time, it is our own interpretation - a viewpoint that makes our work stand out and be interesting.

What makes our work different and unique is allowing one’s own personality and conditioning into the work, Your style vision is created/ enhanced by your personality, turning your work into an individual statement about what you find interesting, and the photographs then become special and unique.

Documentary Photography certainly has changed over time, I get excited when I see unique work by other photographers, that shows an understanding of what the medium of photography can do and not try to replicate other visual forms, how individual photographers capture the seen moment is the strength and magic of photography.

There is a serious lack of understanding and application of what documentary photography does well in terms of image and communication, Photographers do not spend enough time getting to know their subjects, they do not clearly visually define what they are trying to photograph and then how to put together a series of pictures to tell a story without repartition. Good photography needs time to cultivate/produce, and good access is something that is in short supply these days, everything has to be instant. It is interesting if you look at social media and see how many people call themselves photographers.

The photographic process is about the time and research undertaken before taking any pictures, that’s how one ends up in the right place at the right time it is not about equipment or technical ability, a good photograph rarely has anything to do with luck.

Current photographic practice is taught in colleges to speak in a fine art conceptual language. The ideas behind the work are far more important than the image itself, what is said by the photographer and what is written about the work holds more weight than the image does on its own, something to be talked about and written about, the image is secondary, which is very disappointing. Documentary photography has changed to becoming more portrait-based and self-representative in viewpoint, it is not about showing one’s own unique take on life, in my view, it does not seek to understand and discover and inform others! but all about exploring self and one’s own identity, is this a more fine art approach? ( Ideas and viewpoints are far easier to express via language ). People are now so aware of how their image looks and can be used, and seen instantly, especially on social media, there is instant feedback, seen by friends and not always positive, which has made people wary of photographers in general and does make our work more difficult.

Since the middle 1990’s Photography has been seen as a collectible art form in itself. Photographers are now having to deal with Arts Councils and Galleries to show and fund their work, which is managed by academics and administrators who are pushing a fine art conceptual agenda and language, you have to speak this language to take part, receive grants, and be shown, you have to be ‘contemporary’ (whatever that means). When looking at an exhibition or book of photographs, I don’t need to read a lengthy description of why or what the photographer was thinking or trying to do, to give justification for the photograph/work to hold my interest, the work has to stand on its own, I like simple graphic design that does not distract from the pleasure of viewing the photographs, the photographs are there to stand for themselves and are all the better for that.

There is certainly a small but important new wave of interest in documentary photography which has nothing to do with nostalgia for the way we were, but with the love of good photographs, photographers who have been working away for years are now getting the recognition they deserve, one good aspect to social media is that it has become a self-publishing platform for photographers to show work and their archives to be seen. I think Craig Atkinson at Café Royal Books has a lot to do with the rise in popularity, and others like f8 collective by working quietly away promoting documentary photography.

It is good to see photographers who don’t fit into the new world using different venues to show work. I like how ‘Covid’ has forced photographers to show work outdoors due to Galleries being closed and in self-publishing work, where the work is so much more accessible to a wider audience.

Kevin O’Farrell 

Documentary Photographer. 

Kevin O’Farrell  Documentary Photographer. 

Art / Photographic Education
1975 - 1976 Berkshire College of Art and Design 1 yr Foundation course.

1977 - 1979 Newport Documentary Photography, 2yr course received Diploma in Documentary Photography, under David Hurn and John Charity.

Freelance Documentary Photographer.

As a photographer I have had articles about my work published in The British Journal of Photography, Amateur Photographer Magazine, Creative Camera, Irish Times Wooden Boat Magazine USA and f/8 The Bi-Monthly Zine of f8 Documentary Number Ten

• Ireland a week in the life of a nation - A brilliant book edited by Red Saunders and Syd Shelton. A photographic survey of Ireland, Fergus Bourke and Tony O’Shea, plus a number of internationally renowned photographers Martin Parr, Luskacova, Jean-Loup Sieff and David Hurn.

• Freelance photographer for Irish Times, Sunday Business Post, Magill Magazine and The Sunday Tribune + others.

• In 1986 was awarded an Arts Council Visual Arts Bursary for the photographic project Bathing Places.

• In 1989 Arts Council, Artist in Residence Award at St Clare’s Covent School, Kenmare, Co Kerry which resulted in a student exhibition in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin.

• Recent work has been the Fishy Fishy Cookbook Published to go with RTE’s Martin’s Mad about Fish.

•  Traditional Boats of Ireland Project Book publication.

• Hegarty’s Boatyard Photographic Touring Exhibition and Book publication. IBSN 978-1-5272-3264-8

• Facing Britain Book IBSN 978-3-7533-0062-7

Solo touring exhibitions

Bathing Places

Opened in the Project Arts Centre in 1988 With Tom Mc Ginty ( The Dice Man ).

Wexford Arts Centre 


Garter Lane Arts Centre Waterford.

Butler Gallery Kilkenny.
 

Triskel Arts Centre Cork.

Cibéal Cincise Kenmare.
 

Limerick City Gallery of Art.

Galway Arts Centre.
Corner House in Manchester, UK.

Side Gallery in Newcastle, UK. 

Solo exhibitions

The Gallery of Photography Dublin.
 

Cibéal Cincise Kenmare.


Bandon Pottery.


The Irish Stock Exchange Dublin.


West Cork Arts Centre Skibbereen Co Cork

Hegarty’s Boatyard Exhibition at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Hegarty’s Boatyard Last Surviving Traditional Wooden Boatyard in Ireland Exhibition

Group exhibitions

‘First Welsh Open’ Foto Gallery, Cardiff, South Wales.

Midland Group Open, Nottingham UK.

Crawford Gallery of Art, Cork, ‘Ireland 85’ group exhibition.

‘Ireland 85’ Zurich, Switzerland.

‘Irish Contemporary Photography’, Guinness Hop Store Dublin.

’30 CONTEMPORARY COLLECTION’ at the Gallery of Photography, Dublin.

Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Various Members shows and invited shows.

Facing Britain (British Documentary Photography 1960’s- onwards) Museum Goch, Germany.

Facing Britain KUNSTHALLE DARMSTADT Germany.

Facing Britain British documentary photography since the 1960s. MuFo (Museum of the History of Photography, Kraków), Kraków Poland, the exhibition is also part of the @krakowphotomonth

Facing Britain GAF Hannover.n20 OCTOBER - 21 NOVEMBER 2022

Café Royal Books, Documentary, Zines & Subversion, at Martin Parr Foundation, Paintworks Bristol, UK.

Walking along the Ilen River, West Cork, Ireland. 2021. Photo: Maeve Jennings.