PAULA T NOLAN PHOTOGRAPHY

On 20 March 2024 I met Andy on the 9.04pm train from Newbridge to Dublin, Heuston. I first admired the hat, and then Andy chose to sit with me for most of the journey. We talked about life, love and many things, and Andy had an array of ‘props’ which he showed me, many from AliExpress. 

I loved the company. There is something of the mystic about Andy, and for the duration of our time together I felt comfortable and as if we existed for a while in a sacred space of our own making. I love outliers, being a bit of an outlier myself. It’s amongst non-outliers I feel least at ease.

I asked Andy’s permission to take photographs. I was fairly sure the visible camera meant this would be okay. The upshot was a catwalk of outfit props, with the train as the unexpected venue. 

Here is an email from Andy, sent after I asked for permission to use the photographs on my website:

Hello Paula,

I hope you are very well, I am fine, feel free to use any photo which you have taken of me and submit them to any website. 

I will send some music links to you soon, please tell me more about your good self, your travels, family etc and the names of famous people which you have met.

I met the singer Johnny McEvoy in Dublin Heuston station a number of years ago. 

I am wearing my new yellow coat today and I have a new umbrella with bright fuchsia ribbons.

Take care for now,

Regards.

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It is worth recalling the experience of being a woman on her own at Newbridge Train Station at night, in the dark, in winter time. On the first platform, there was a young man with a hood up keeping to the shadows. On the steps to cross to the opposite platform, three young people were shooting up smack. I had to pass all of these people. On the Dublin bound platform the other side of the bridge, was a man of about forty years of age who looked to me to be ‘safe’, and I thought to myself, “Oh good, someone who isn’t dodgy.” Across on the opposite platform I could see now that the lone hooded young man was joined by another hooded individual, a bit older, and they were in a dark corner making some kind of exchange. After about ten minutes, another young man with a hoodie came in a gate behind me on my platform and walked directly up to the ’safe’ man. They seemed to know each other. He guided him out the gate. I presume some sort of drug exchange took place, and about ten minutes later this older man came back in the gate alone to the platform just as the train pulled in, and on he got. So when Andy joined me at my table, not only did I love the company, but I felt safer.  Thank you, Andy

In November 2023, Edge Hardware Store in Fairview, Dublin 3, closed its door for the last time after 106 years serving the local community. In September I was given permission to make a project on this unique shop, at a time when much of the stock was already cleared out, but the spirit of the place was still very much intact. If anything, it was stronger, as daily, even hourly, people came in to buy something there for the last time, and to wish Victor and Michael well.

The first photograph that appears here is a scene we all witnessed over the decades: Victor in his tiny office. I was told that one of his daughters had taken photos of this office and all the bits and pieces on the wall, and was going to replicate it in Vincent’s new office, in his home. His very own Francis Bacon experience.

Apart from a record of this shop, I wanted to capture the spirit of it along with a sadness we all felt at the end of an era. Being almost half empty gave this air of woebegone, and although Victor and Michael smiled to camera most of the time, some images captured them less posed.

It cannot go without saying that the community’s love of Edge Hardware was not based solely on serving the community with all its hardware needs. It was every bit as much because of the lovely nature of Victor and Michael and all who toiled therein. Until making this project, I had not noticed the sign at the end of the long shop: ‘Lord, keep my attitude in check today’. I wondered how often over the years did they look up at that sign for a reminder when faced with a difficult customer! All I know is that I have never heard a bad word said by anybody about this place, and have heard an awful lot of good things said.

This is a snapshot in time, that time not being how the shop appeared for decades, but the gradual loss during the long farewell.

EVERYTHING MUST GO.

When this old world is getting you down, look up!

ALL THESE PHOTOGRAPHS WERE EXHIBITED BY THE PAUL KANE GALLERY IN AN EXHIBITION ENTITLED ‘DOUBLE EXPOSURE’.

The exhibition took place in the Irish Architectural Archive in Merrion Square, and was a 2-person show, the other exhibitor being Michael Corrigan with is stunning quality colour images, so we made quite a contrasting pair. While intended to take place in 2020, it was postponed and ultimately took place in October 2021.

All these photos were taken between 1st January and 100 days later, in 2020. Each day I took sky photos, each day with the same ultra wide angle lens, the plan being to literally walk from darkness into light, from winter in to spring. Little did we know it would be from the world as we know it, into a brand new Covid world.

Taking these photos was a precursor to the Royal Canal photos in PROJECT FLOATING. The sky photos were the start of a two-year recovery process from a devastating betrayal. It takes as long as it takes! The switch from sky to terrain mirrors the switch from escaping emotionally into wrestling with the demons.

But no demons take over entirely, thank heavens – literally. Walking and taking photographs for the first 100 days of 2020, I became witness to a magical process of the earth cleansing itself. As Covid restricted all but the most basic of movement, the world around me quickly adapted to healing itself. The sky no longer had jet trails for the hundreds of planes taking off from Dublin Airport every day. It because a most beautiful blue, and this was reflected in the sea, and the canal water. I had never in my life seen such a colour blue, such purity of colour, and this was matched by the purity of the air. The air quality of inner city Dublin became extraordinarily clean. I could smell the greenery as I walked each day. Alfie Byrne Road, a hugely busy through way from the East Wall to Clontarf, sounded and smelled like a country meadow. Birds became superior to humans as they seemed to revel in this new clean world, and I could see moss growing green down by the Clontarf mud flats. A whole new world and I personally was deeply saddened to see it go, to see fumes take over once more, birds retreat, squirrels take to the upper branches, and the smell of my surroundings again polluted by diesel and petrol, the noise of trains, cars, buses again blotting out the sounds of birds, of AIR moving, of insects.

The ‘up’ side of this is that we all became witness to how quickly the earth wants to heal. It healed a damn sight faster than my poor heart at that time! While it might seem as if we have lost the chance to save our world, I hold out hope.

My love of photography began with photographing skies. The first sky to make my heart leap was taken in Rosslare with a Nokia. I was hooked. I make a speciality of taking photographs of skies from inside buses, trains and cars. Especially buses, as they are high above standing height and allow for a great long view.

The photos in this album are a mixture of some taken down near my beloved Dollymount Strand, some in Gran Canaria and some in Australia. About half of the Australia shots were taken from a car window as we travelled through the Blue Mountains.

Capturing a moment in time and a way of life fast ending, this is a small selection from a major photo project on the Jesuit Community in Leeson Street.

My primary role with the Jesuits in Ireland was book design, and in this capacity I frequently worked side by side with the Irish Jesuit Archives, and other archives in Ireland and elsewhere. Thus grew a deep love of everything archival, and as libraries and museums increased access online to archival material, the world of archive material became ever richer and accessible. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to pore over archival material and use it in a book or other project.

This collection was given as a gift to the Irish Jesuit Archives.

Windows in the Irish Cultural Centre and nearby streets just after dark when people are arriving home from work. Always a time in winter that evokes melancholy and pleasant loneliness, the hope is some of this emotion is captured by way of lighting. I love that it is unmistakably NOT Dublin, where I am from, and so for me it evokes also a sense of the aloneness of being a solo traveller. I was in Paris to attend Paris Photo 2023.

Manresa in Birmingham is the place Jesuit novices spend time during their formation. In 2020 the community vacated the premises in order for it to be completely renovated. This project was to capture the house and the community before this major change took place.

The resulting collection of photographs was given as a gift to the British Jesuit Archives.

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My primary role with the Jesuits in Ireland was book design, and in this capacity I frequently worked side by side with the Irish Jesuit Archives, and other archives in Ireland and elsewhere. Thus grew a deep love of everything archival, and as libraries and museums increased access online to archival material, the world of archive material became ever richer and accessible. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to pore over archival material and use it in a book or other project.

John Sullivan SJ was made Blessed John Sullivan in 2018 in a ceremony at SFX Church, Gardiner Street. This is a small selection of images taken of both the preparations and the day itself.

I was charged with the graphic design, including the huge image of John Sullivan to appear over the altar. It is five meters high and three meters wide. It was covered over by red curtains, then opened ceremoniously once the declaration of John Sullivan as a Blessed was made, a theatrical touch to proceedings.

I photographed preparations in the lead up to the event, and ‘behind the scenes’ on the day. The resulting collection was given as a gift to the Irish Jesuit Archives.

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My primary role with the Jesuits in Ireland was book design, and in this capacity I frequently worked side by side with the Irish Jesuit Archives, and other archives in Ireland and elsewhere. Thus grew a deep love of everything archival, and as libraries and museums increased access online to archival material, the world of archive material became ever richer and accessible. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to pore over archival material and use it in a book or other project.

In November 2017 The Adventure Project began the renovation of the Lock Keeper’s cottage at Newcomen Bridge, North Strand, Dublin 3. The cottage had fallen into a bad state over years of neglect. 

The Adventure Project was an independent non-profit organisation delivering collaborative therapeutic programs and outdoor education experiences. 

While operating this project at the cottage, the Project offered canoeing on the Royal Canal, while also acting as a central club house for their many outdoor activities. The Project leader gave me permission to take photos of the renovation over the many months it took to complete. 

I was careful to check with every person photographed that they had no objection to my including them, and I excluded anyone who wished to be excluded. The renovation was enabled by the volunteers who came on board, many of whom had perhaps troubled backgrounds. The Project believed in the power of the outdoors and team activities to teach young people life-skills, ways of being and thinking, the importance of helping each other, and so forth.

Seeing this transformation take place was a huge privilege for me. I was like a ghost who walked around the work, camera and lenses hanging out of me. It is my firm belief that the ethos of this project holds the key to healing the environment by healing people first.

I do not make the mistake of thinking this applies only to those of troubled backgrounds. It is my firm belief that every bit as much healing is required by those in positions of power. Power and wealth corrupts every bit as much as disenfranchisement and poverty. These are very basic thoughts that I hope in the future to expande through photo projects and a book, or books. In many ways, there is nothing more important.

In 2016, I went to Paris Photo. It was a cold early November - and especially on the open rooftop of Gallerie Lafayette at dusk and after dark. 

These shots were taken by placing the camera on an outstretched arm of the tripod, with it still around my neck for security. It was the only way to exclude the parapet on the wall. 

It took over two hours to get what I wanted, more if you count the previous day taking practise shots with the iPhone. The iPhone allows me access to spaces the camera doesn’t lend itself to, and then I try to make the camera more versatile than it is intended to be to achieve the same shots as the phone. 

The monochrome Eiffel Tower shots were taken on a rainy grey day.

The Kincora Boys' Home was a boys' home in Belfast, Northern Ireland that was the scene of serious organised child sexual abuse in the 1970s, causing a scandal and attempted cover-up in 1980, with allegations of state collusion. For more information on this, you may google ‘Kincora Boys’ Home Belfast’.

These photos were taken in 2018, a long time after change of use from a boys’ home to a business premises. At the time of taking the photographs, the businesses had moved, and it was up for sale with pp for a proposed apartment block. For some years before this, the scandal of sex abuse had been much in the news, with many people calling for the demolition of the building – a reminder and a source of re-traumatisation for those who had lived there.

Glimpse-memories from a childhood living with alcoholism

The undertaker gave us a candle with our father’s name on it which I kept and still have, and light on Christmas Day. The first photo shows it on the windowsill of my father’s house as we are working to empty it and put it up for sale. I know my father looked out this window every day, many times, often stared out, thinking of my mother and his loneliness without her. He spent a lot of time in the kitchen, especially in the latter years when watching TV gave him no pleasure any more for various reason.

The second photo is of his sitting room chair after he died, and the third photo, before he died. If you look through the chair to the photo on the table, that’s my mother, and he loved that photo of her. The fourth photo is his chair at the kitchen table, then the kitchen after he died. After that, we see random places in the house and the familiar bits and pieces from when he lived there.