16. Contemporary Documentary Photographers.

It is important to research various different styles of documentary photographers, as well as portraiture and various other which I have looked at, there is also the contemporary style documentary photography. Researching this would give me a better idea about how you can push the boundaries of photography. 

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/contemporary-documentary-photographers/

I began my research by searching for contemporary documentary photographers on major gallery websites, as the screen shot above shows, the V & A website had the most useful page. It highlighted the work of several recognisable contemporary documentary photographers, these photographers included:

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, Clare Richardson, Albrecht Tubke, Deirdre O'Callaghan, Roger Ballen, Tina Barney, Donovan Wylie and Allan Sekula.

The V&A showed a single image of each of the photographers, but it also included an interview with each one, which was very useful. Out of all of the photographers they highlighted, at first look it was the work of Deirdre O'Callaghan which took my interest. 

Deirdre O'Callaghan

"Deirdre O’Callaghan’s Hide the Can series is the culmination of four years of spending time and photographing in Arlington House in North London. This hostel is home to mainly Irish men in their fifties and sixties who came to London as young adults to earn money as manual labourers. Deirdre O’Callaghan moved to London in the early 1990s, as did many young Irish men and women, in search of work and her initial affinity with the residents of Arlington house came from their shared economic migration. But it was equally her differences from the men – her age, her gender and, of course, her choice to enter the lives of Arlington House - that became the keys to this documentary project. Taking these photographs created a routine from which the communication between O’Callaghan and the men was created. Her role in providing the time and the excuse for the men to reflect on their lives was confirmed when she was invited to document their holidays to Ireland arranged by the House. Hide the Can is a traditional version of humanist documentary photography, one in which O’Callaghan attempts to give a dignity to the men of Arlington House and show her empathy for a forgotten generation of migrant workers."

- From the V&A Website

O'Callaghan isn't a very well-known photographer, not after some basic research. There is very little information about her, but there is some information about her life and on her website there is a lot of information about who she works for and what she as done over the years. Now working in London, she has done some portraiture of famous musicians, even though this is not Documentary, it is still worth noting that she is known for her photography in some way.

"Deirdre O'Callaghan was born in Cork in 1970 and is now based in London. She was picture editor of Dazed & Confused magazine (1996-98) and her work has appeared in numerous publications including The Independent Magazine, Q Magazine, Hot Press and Mojo. He solo exhibition Hide That Can, a four year study of an Irish emigrant community in north London was premiered in the Gallery of Photography in 2001. The book of this work, published by Westzone in 2003, was awarded Publication of the Year by both the International Center of Photography, New York and Rencontres d'Arles de la Photographie, France. "

http://www.galleryofphotography.ie/contemporary_collection_print_draw/large-33.html

I am very fond of Deirdre O'Callaghan's work, especially that of her most recognised work, 'Hide That Can'. I believe this to be her main documentary project, but I am unsure if her other work is all Documentary.

Her photographs are very interesting, just by looking at the two images which I have one from her series 'Hide That Can' it is very clear that there are more to her subjects than what it seems, especially in this series. These images are fairly hard hitting, especially after reading a little more into the information about the Irish Community that she photographed.

The series consists of portraits mostly, but they are very interesting portraits. Here on the right hand side is one of my favourite photographs from the series. Again, knowing the information about this series can make the image quite effective, and perhaps even a little upsetting. It is very clear that O'Callaghan simply photographed when she could, what she could, and the outcome is beautiful.

A Very Useful Page. 

http://www.trolleybooks.com/bookSingle.php?bookId=33

View more Images from her book here.

"Hide That Can brings together images taken over four years at Arlington House, Camden, a hostel which primarily accommodates male Irish emigrants. Most of them are alcoholic. Often sad, interspersed with lighter touches of humour, the book is a record of lives that function without families, jobs or prospects, yet are still portrayed with a sense of dignity amid the depression.

Deirdre O'Callaghan has provided an unsettling but ultimately invigorating record of the inmates at Arlington House, Europe's largest refuge for alcoholics and the displaced.

One hundred years ago Lord Rowton took it into his head to build a hostel. Being a peer of the realm the grandiose came easily to him, and in 1905 the massive, even forbidding, red-brick edifice arose in Camden Town in London, filled with 382 beds for impoverished manual labourers. Clean sheets, washing facilities and nourishing food were to be provided for the inmates.

In fact the great building, Arlington House, was designed to be, and quickly became, billets for the destitute Irish navvies who crossed the sea to find work in the capital. Today the Irish connection has not gone; almost 70% of the current residents are Irish, and, although they are equally poor, few of them work or labour - most are alcoholics, and largely forgotten by society.

A picture of Arlington House in the past can be found in George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. It is not pleasant. Now the photographer Deidre O'Callaghan has brought together four year's work at the refuge, her record of the despair, humour and hope on the faces of the residents, a remarkable gallery of a largely expatriate community at odds with the world outside.

But her pictures also record the work of the hostel itself in trying to reintegrate the residents into that world, photographs of clarity and wonder taken during trips to Ireland for the inmates. Some have lived at Arlington House for 30 years; many have not seen their families for as long. Her pictures of these reunions with their kin and their country are remarkable."