Lookingback

eric luk e

LOOK I NG BA CK : TH E C H ANG I NG FA C E S OF I RE L A N D

Born in Dalkey, south County Dublin, Eric Luke has always had a passion for photography. He joined the Irish Press Group as a staff photographer in 1973, following a brief stint working in the darkrooms as a photographic printer. Seventeen years later, in 1990, he moved to the Irish Times, covering major news and feature stories both at home and abroad, including two World Cups, five Olympic Games, and assignments in Somalia, Kenya, India, Sydney, Washington and London. However, his main focus lies at home in Ireland, adding to his personal collection of photographs, documenting the many changes in the Irish people and countryside. Eric has won numerous awards, including the World Press Photo News Award and PPAI Photographer of the Year, over a forty-year career in photojournalism.

e ric luke

LO OK I NG BA C K : THE CHANG ING FACES OF IREL A N D

First published 2016 by The O’Brien Press Ltd, 12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, D06 HD27, Ireland.

Tel: +353 1 4923333; Fax: +353 1 4922777 E-mail: books@obrien.ie Website: www.obrien.ie ISBN: 978-1-84717-865-7 Copyright for text © Eric Luke 2016 Copyright for editing, typesetting, layout, design © The O’Brien Press Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or in any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21 20 19 18 17 16 Printed and bound in Poland by Białostockie Zakłady Graficzne S.A. The paper in this book is produced using pulp from managed forests.

Acknowledgments: I gratefully acknowledge the help and permission to use pictures from The Irish Times from editor Kevin O’Sullivan.

I also wish to acknowledge the help of the people of Tory Island in identifying and naming subjects of my old negatives.

Photo credits: The Irish Times: pages 12, 25, 27, 30, 31, 34, 35, 56, 57, 58, 62, 63, 64, 68, 69 (top) , 71 (lower), 75, 76, 77, 83 (lower), 97, 126, 127, 132 (lower), 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141.

Eric Luke collection: pages 9, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 28, 29, 32, 33, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 59, 60, 61, 67, 70, 72, 73, 74, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83 (top), 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 98, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132 (top), 136.

Published in:

Dedicated to Yvonne, Jack, Amy and Jennifer.

Introduction

page 9

The Capital

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The Country

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Personalities 66 Music 79 Smithfield 99 Tory Island

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The North

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Sport 129

Intr oduction

I

t all started in Nancy in northern France, a couple of years ago. My daughter was there on an Erasmus

programme, and I sat in the town square with an old film camera, producing yet more photographs to add to the growing mountain. I decided that the time had finally come to make some sort of sense of them, to impose order on my jumble of old negatives.

The idea of digging out and dusting down my old negatives at first seemed like a chore. But having retrieved numerous boxes of exposed sheets of 35mm film from a dusty and crowded attic, I soon warmed to the task.

Observing how my colleagues now engage with social media, I felt that twitter would be a good vehicle to present the pictures as I filed and organised. I began posting an old picture each day, and was surprised at the immediate and enthusiastic response. In an era of instant communication, this virtual exhibition of images was an old medium on a modern platform. It seemed to stir up nostalgia in people, and the pictures got a huge reaction. Little did I know that my old negatives would continue on their journey – from celluloid

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ERIC LUKE: LOOKING BACK

in the attic to electronic social media, and then back full circle to a hardcover photographic book.

My photographic career started in 1973, when I joined the Irish Press group of newspapers, made up of the Irish Press, Evening Press and Sunday Press. The picture editor at the time was Liam Flynn, and he was responsible for all photographic content for the three titles. He was also in charge of the darkrooms and a skilled group of photographic printers. All three newspapers were known for great news coverage and excellent usage of pictures. As the three papers required coverage nationwide, photographers got the opportunity to visit most parts of the country.

In the 1970s, a press photographer learned his craft by serving time as a photographic printer in the darkrooms. In the old Irish Press building on Burgh Quay, Dublin, we had a number of darkrooms, with numerous photographic printers handling the work of seventeen staff photographers.This work taught us a real respect for 35mm film, and also taught the reality of what it could and could not do. The experience gained in the darkroom served well in later life, and would be very useful when behind the camera.

A colleague, the great photographer Colman Doyle, encouraged me to ‘do your own thing’, to use my extra time to cover assignments of my own choice. I would go to concerts and sports events, and throw pictures at the paper. After five months in the darkrooms, I got hired on the staff. Joining that group of experienced shooters was indeed a privilege. And so followed a career of over forty colourful years as staff photographer with Irish newspapers, during which I spent my spare time shooting pictures of personal interest.

This included many trips to Tory Island, and other islands off the west coast of Ireland; visits to fairs throughout the country; music events in Dublin; and quite a few hazardous trips to the North of Ireland with Colman Doyle during the seventies and eighties.

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Intr oduction

After seventeen years with the Irish Press, the time came to move on. I joined the Irish Times in 1990. The picture editor with the Irish Times was Dermot O’Shea, and he was wonderful to work with. I was sent on assignments to every corner of Ireland, and indeed on some exciting international stories, including five Olympic Games and two World Cups, the White House in Washington, Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street, and assignments in Somalia, Kenya and India. I would process films on location, scan the negatives, and transmit the images back to base.

It was all wonderful experience, and with a good picture editor I was assured of great usage of the pictures on my return.The tight ship that Dermot ran also included a group of expert darkroom technicians, ensuring top quality prints from the photographers’ work. This combination of skills led to the Irish Times’ deserved reputation for excellent photographic coverage.

One thing my photographic colleagues taught me was to try to use natural light where at all possible, even if it meant a loss in quality. Many of my early film exposures therefore involved pushing the film stock to the limit, with long development times and slow shutter speeds. Now, in a world of digital cameras with automatic focusing and exposure, this seems so bizarre. Perhaps pushing the limits of film and cameras worked in our favour, and helped capture the flavour of a past era.

There is an ongoing debate on the differences between digital and film photography. I like to think of them as two different forms of media – digital, with its forensic accuracy in reproducing a scene; and film, with its more atmospheric interpretation of the same scene. The ‘noise’ picked up on digital, versus the ‘grain’ on a roll of negative film. As ninety-five percent of this collection was shot on film, you can see where my loyalty lies.

The cameras employed for most of these pictures are light years removed from the cameras of today. Manual focus and manual exposure, on camera bodies without motor-drive – these things

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ERIC LUKE: LOOKING BACK

all provide challenges and opportunities.The process involved first loading a roll of film, then measuring the light exposure on a separate exposure meter, and setting the shutter and aperture, then focusing on the subject and composing the shot. It’s a wonder we ever succeeded in getting a picture at all.

There is also a certain discipline involved, when you are limited to thirty-six exposures on a roll of 35mm film. I find when shooting with my digital cameras today, I’m inclined to overshoot, as there is virtually no limit to the number of frames available. No fear of running out of film.

And so, having blown the cobwebs off those dusty old boxes of negatives from the last four decades, and put them in some kind of order, I noticed a sort of thread common to most – that people in their own environment, going about their daily lives, tell a story in themselves.

Most of these photographs have never appeared in any publication before, and it is a real pleasure for me to see them produced in book form. I hope you get pleasure from it too.

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The Capital

I

suppose Dublin is a good place to start, as it’s where I started from, and it’s also a fantastic place to take

photographs.

In what other European capital city could you leave the office

and, twenty minutes later, be photographing a fisherman in the bay? Dublin is surrounded by mountains, built on the River Liffey and edged with miles of beautiful beaches. Framed by these natural elements, opportunities for photographers pop up every day – whether images of the Dublin of old, gradually disappearing into the past, or of the modern, cosmopolitan city, home to people from many cultures and backgrounds. There are moments of tension, and moments of human connection, all available to be captured on film.

As the city becomes more modernised, it seems obvious, and I would say important, to record some of the older businesses and trades before they disappear. Businesses like Greer’s saddlers and harness makers, and Dom McClure’s barbershop, are being replaced by new concerns, and it is nice to be able to record them in some way before they are gone. We will not see their like again.

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ERIC LUKE: LOOKING BACK

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The Capital

Joe Lawless, here pictured in 1985, fished for mackerel, lobster and crab for many years, from Bulloch Harbour, south County Dublin.

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ERIC LUKE: LOOKING BACK

Right next door to our old Irish Press office

our leather camera bags, or make a new one

on Poolbeg Street was the shop of Sam

from scratch if he had time. A Sam Greer

Greer, the last saddle and harness maker

camera bag would last much longer than the

in Dublin. His grandfather, also Sam Greer,

camera it held! On hearing he was closing

started the business in 1900. Horse owners

down, I asked if I could spend his last day

from as far afield as the Aran Islands came

of business with him, photographing him

to him for saddles, as the quality of his work

for the record. He kindly let me spend the

was renowned. Greer’s saddles are still

day with him, and I watched as he hand-

highly valued for their hand stitching and

crafted his wonderful leather goods. Then

fine craftsmanship. We would occasionally

he closed up shop, and another old business

drop into him, and he would repair one of

disappeared from the city.

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The Capital

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ERIC LUKE: LOOKING BACK

Street scene, O’Connell Street, 1980s. A Garda chats with a woman with a crucifix, a well known figure in Dublin city centre.

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The Capital

Traveller children and horse on a halting site in west Dublin, 1987.

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ERIC LUKE: LOOKING BACK

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The Capital

Opposite: Tuned in. This picture was taken on Westmoreland Street, just off O’Connell Bridge, in the late 1970s. I don’t know if he was listening to a match, or to music, or to what, with his improvised antenna.

Right: A child observing the age-old tradition of climbing lampposts and bus stops, across the road from Pearse Street Garda Station, 1970s.

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Another wonderful institution that is now long gone –

across the leather armrests of the solid wooden chair

the local barbershop, Dom McClure’s in Castle Street,

for a child to sit on. I never would have expected to

Dalkey. Growing up in the area, my mother would

be here thirty years later, photographing Dom before

frog-march me to the barber’s for a short back and

he closed up shop in the 1980s. This premises is still

sides. This meant a short journey to Pip Connolly’s in

operating as a barber’s, now under new ownership,

Glasthule or McClure’s in Dalkey. A plank would be set

and the great Pip Connolly still holds court in Glasthule.

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The Capital

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ERIC LUKE: LOOKING BACK

‘An ill wind ...’ It sounded like a simple, straightforward assignment – a hot, sunny day on Dollymount Strand. Visions of people sunbathing, swimming and eating ice cream, but it turned out far from that. It was late in the day when I arrived, after four o’clock in fact, and a thick fog had descended, blocking out all sunlight. The fog had not just blocked the sun, but appeared to remove almost all colour from the scene, replacing it with a surreal, misty landscape. While this is not the photograph I set out to take, it ended up a better, and much more interesting shot.

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The Capital

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ERIC LUKE: LOOKING BACK

A glorious sunset on the longest day of the year – midsummer’s day at Sandycove, south County Dublin. My young son Jack was playing on the rocks, oblivious to me taking pictures, providing a perfect silhouette against the sunset.

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The Capital

A stunt motorbike rider, juxtaposed with a metal horse, at the RDS, Ballsbridge, launching a high-powered motorcycle event.

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