Over the past six weeks ICC Digital has been delighted to bring you some stunning photographs from the gallery of Dublin’s great Documentary Street Photographer, Barry Delaney. This week we present another magnificent photograph of Barry’s.. this image entitled “The Forty Foot” is an ideal one for you to ponder upon during these blistering hot summers days.
Barry really captures the joy of summer and young families and friends, the lads, girls and babies, celebrating together at Dublin’s famous beauty spot in Sandycove, the seaside place renowned for strong swimmers. In former days ‘The Forty Foot’ was a swimming and bathing place for male swimmers only, but in the 1970s a group of Irish female equal-rights activists plunged into the waters and ever since then women and children can also swim there. This photo has a wonderful youthful power and intimacy about it and what makes it even more special is how Barry so brilliantly captures the older couple, you can just see them in the distance, looking on – the older generation looking at how Dublin has changed. This picture literally sings of joy and also it truly makes us smile.
This Photograph “The Forty Foot” is taken from Barry Delaney’s photographic series on Modern Ireland. The image appears in his (sold out) book ‘Stars and Souls Of the Liffey’. Barry hopes to also include it in his next book on life by the Forty Foot – “Forty Footers” – so watch out for it.
About Barry Delaney: Barry Delaney is inspired by the colour, energy and DIY attitude of punk. He fled the grey Dublin of the early 1980s, to travel the world and fell in love with film photography. Eked a living doing various manual and technical jobs. Fifteen years later, Barry began taking pictures again. It started on the streets of Dublin, his home town, and moved on to other parts of Ireland and across the sea to his old stomping grounds in England and America. Barry has had 7 solo exhibitions in Dublin and many group shows, including the RHA and DLR Lexicon, Dun Laoghaire. In 2019 he completed a retrospective of his inner city Dublin work in the historic GPO, Dublin, along with his debut Dublin book – Stars and Souls of the Liffey – Last year he released his second book Americans Anonymous, with poems by John O’Donnell at the Gallery of Photography, Dublin.
Barry Delany’s Books: For his debut book on Dublin’s Inner City, ‘Stars and Souls of the Liffey‘ Barry documented life around Dublin’s urban centre, as it went through many changes, from boom to bust and back to boom. When it was first published, it was accompanied by a photographic exhibition held at The General Post Office in Dublin. The Book Is now a collectors Item and currently Sold Out.
Barry’s second book ‘Americans Anonymous’ is a pictorial road trip across the United States, a country that, in the wake of Donald Trump, has never been more divided. From East to West by way of the Deep South, in the tradition of Robert Frank and Dorothea Lange, the photographs of Barry Delaney, accompanied by the poems of John O’Donnell, record the lives of ordinary people at an extraordinary time. This Book can currently be purchased at Hi Tone Books– Here is the link to buy a copy :-https://hitonebooks.ie/americans-anonymous/
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To purchase Limited Editions of Barry Delaney’s Photographic prints, contact [email protected]
To see Barry’s previous three images go to ‘Artists Corner’ on ICC Digital.
