Anyone living in or interested in Ireland cannot but be aware of the enormous changes that have occurred in the recent years of our perception of ourselves and our society, The visual cliches, fostered for decades by native advertising and tourism and too easily accepted as a comforting representation of reality are clearly no longer able to explain contemporary complexities. The social and political upheavals of recent years have created a much altered socio-cultural environment that demands a fresh approach from the photographers, a new visual grammar. It is the diversity of contemporary Irish Photography’s response to these evolving conditions that this work represents.

An exhibition publication, The Lie of the Land , co-curated with Ute Eskidsen of the Folkwang Museum, Essen, presents the work of John Duncan, Anthony Haughey, Padraig Murphy, Mick O’Kelly, Paul Seawright and Victor Sloan. Each artist carries the diverse cultural baggage of their Irish inheritance, yet images in this publication and exhibition may not strike you as they are from conventional visual conceptions of Irishness.