The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Jan 2016 back issue
by Sean Hillen
I grew up in the 1970s in Newry, a small town on the Northern Irish Border which was
a hotspot in the 30-year conflict. I escaped to study at LCP and the Slade School,
during which time, as I travelled between my homes in Newry and London,
selfconciously as a young artist and in a strong sense ‘for posterity’ and because there
was no-one else to photograph these amazing things, I took around 600 photos of
scenes related to the culture and history.
The negatives remained mostly unprinted and unseen, actually stuffed into a carrier-bag
for nearly 20 years except for a few I printed for use in photo-collage works.
In 2011 the National Library of Ireland became aware of the photos, and decided to
acquire them as a separate Permanent Collection. My book; Melancholy Witness with 120 images and 7,000 words of
captions was published in 2013/4.
