A Place Less Ordinary

Built in the 1960s, the North Dublin suburb of Bayside is over 50 years old.  Situated on the coast, 12 kms from Dublin city centre, it encompasses about 2,000 households, a church, various shops, a DART station, restaurants, a medical centre, and a pub.

A Place Less Ordinary is a record of Bayside as it looks today, made in collaboration with the people who live and work in this vibrant community. It depicts the distinctive suburban landscapes and architectural heritage of Bayside, which has evolved over the years. But equally it is a portrait of its inhabitants, both individuals and groups. The people in the photographs are my neighbours and friends who actively come together to make Bayside a unique place to live.

My book, takes the form of a gentle saunter around our neighbourhood, of Bayside; interpreting the houses, alleyways, parklands, and distinctive suburban appearance of the area. My book is a mutual creation with my friends and neighbours who live and work in this distinctive space.

Photographs of aspects of everyday life have a distinctive effect on society, by affecting us and shaping how we see our shared environments. The legacy of 1970s American photography that emerged at a particular cultural moment and political climate remains a lively influence. Elevating seemingly simple photographic documents of the details of structures and surfaces to the same level of complexity expected of photographs of the social relationships between people, photographed in groups and individually is a fascination.

Rather than impossible ideas of universality, my ambition for photography is to elicit connections between people at the moment their attention is held by a detail or gesture or object, so conversation follows in a mix of personal recollections and lived experiences.