First published by T Magazine on 26 April 2016
Until two years ago, the photographer Eamonn Doyle, whose new work “End.” goes on show at London’s Michael Hoppen Gallery this May, was not known for his photographs. After graduating art college in 1991, he founded a record label and a festival in his native Dublin, immersing himself in the local music scene for almost 20 years. It was after the economic crash in 2008 that, feeling burned out and in need of a change, he bought a camera and began to photograph life on the streets around his home.
Doyle self-published his first photo book, “i”, in 2014, and planned to spend the next few years selling the 750 copies. On a whim, he sent one to the British photographer Martin Parr. “I receive many books in the post — many good, and some poor,” Parr recalls now, “but from time to time a book stops you in your tracks.” When he received it, he posted on a Flickr forum for fans of street photography, describing it as “the best new street photo book, I have seen in a decade.” “I think it was sold out within a couple of weeks after that,” says Doyle.
That first book and Doyle’s subsequent publications, “ON” in 2015, and now “End.,” the last in the trilogy, have focused mainly on his own street in central Dublin. The neighborhood, he says, is heavily populated by immigrants from West Africa, China and Eastern Europe; he finds it “kind of raw, vibrant,” but also weary and often sad. His images capture glimpses of life, shot in bright sunlight and from disorienting angles, “almost treating the figures as just purely abstract forms, looking at the texture and shapes.” Two little girls, photographed from above, appear to tumble around the corner of a street; a man shot from ground level seems laden. “The more I’m photographing, the more I’m realizing that it’s just sort of scratching the surface — even now, after the three books,” says Doyle.
For “End.,” he has joined forces with two friends: the graphic designer Niall Sweeney, who has contributed drawings, and the musician David Donohoe, who has produced a 7-inch vinyl record. “It’s being presented as a series of maybe short plays or events, that have all been bound together in a slip case,” says Doyle. “It’s not your traditional photo book.”
In addition to the Michael Hoppen show, the work will also be exhibited at the Photo London fair in May and the Arles photography festival from July to September. Afterward, Doyle plans to seek a new subject — away from Dublin. “The three books have come in quite quick succession to each other, much quicker than I expected, so the gallery are actually still trying to catch up with me,” he says. “I’d like to take a little bit longer for the next work, and see what happens.”
“End.” is available from May 12 at eamonndoyle.com. Images from the book will be exhibited May 13-July 15 at the Michael Hoppen Gallery, 3 Jubilee Pl, London.