A powerful photographic exhibition of works by a photographer with strong west Donegal connections opens next week.
In partnership with Donegal County Archives, the showcase of images by Ann Doherty opens to the public in Donegal County Museum, Letterkenny, at 6pm on Culture Night, Friday 23rd.
Ms Doherty, whose family hails from Gweedore and Gola Island, worked as a documentary photographer across the globe between 1994 – 2005.
She photographed for the Sunday Times Magazine between 1997- 2004, covering the after-effects of war, Communism and poverty throughout the world.
This curated selection of her photographs features ordinary people often living in extraordinary situations, from Ireland to Sierra Leone, from Italy to Armenia and Ukraine to Egypt.
Her images bring the lives of people from many different nations and cultures sharply into focus against backgrounds of conflict, poverty, social deprivation, hardship, trauma, and remoteness.
The stark beauty and honesty of Ann’s work reveals the indomitable spirit and will to survive of those pushed to the edge of human experience.
Dr Niamh Brennan is the Donegal County Council Archivist.
“In 2018 Donegal County Archives was honoured to be the recipient of a large collection of photographs of the work of renowned and talented documentary photographer Ann Doherty,” she said.
The County Archives and Donegal County Museum, she added, are delighted to have received a Heritage Stewardship Fund award from the Heritage Council this year.
“We have appointed Ciarán Walsh, curator and archivist, to catalogue this wonderful collection and, in collaboration with Ann Doherty, a selection of the photographs will be exhibited at the County Museum this autumn.”
In the exhibition, ‘A Common Humanity: Full Circle’, Ann describes her journey.
“I would set out with a small rucksack, camera, film and little else – not even a map or guide book, just curiosity and a need to go into the unknown with an open mind and spirit, in order to witness those who were struggling in their everyday lives in situations far worse than my own,” she explains.
“The different paths I took, abroad and at home, taught me about the power of words and images to highlight the plight of the disenfranchised in life’s margins, long before social media was invented.”
Admission is free. Donegal County Museum, High Road, Letterkenny, Co Donegal T 074 9124613 E museum@donegalcoco.ie
Main photo caption: Church opening in Lall after the collapse of communism in Armenia in 1999.
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