Photography and Ireland

“Dedicated to an exploration of photography’s capacity to induce “geographical imaginings” of Ireland and the Irish, Justin Carville’s thoughtful book highlights a history that has been insufficiently understood by outsiders. Addressing the complexities of national history as a discourse that is simultaneously impossible and necessary, Carville offers a meditation on photography of interest to all.”

“Photography and Ireland challenges the widespread view that Irish life escaped visual representation and only found adequate expression in literature. When Yeats wrote that ‘masterful images’ began in disenchantment, he could have been referring to the hidden history of photography in Ireland. In this breakthrough survey, Justin Carville shows how the camera questioned not only familiar romantic images but also illusions of the ‘real’ as Ireland moved into the modern world.”

“Justin Carville’s Photography and Ireland is much more than a national survey book. In his hands, photography tells us a great deal about the way in which the Irish have been perceived and the example of Ireland is employed to ask questions of photography. Carville demonstrates why his subject matters. There can be no doubt that photography in Ireland has found its historian.”