I'll Be Damned

I'll Be Damned is a project which at its core documents the artist’s father's childhood through the use of found imagery, letters and other artefacts alongside Patrick’s own photographic work. Baring witness to the grip that both alcoholism and the Catholic church had on the country at the time, the artist surveyed the area in which he called home in an attempt to traverse the trials and tribulations of a young boy during a time where existence is ever fleeting. The project deals with masculinity, existentialism and sexual identity. The work attempts to dissolve the transitional period between boyhood and manhood, exposing its fragility and eventual dissipation. It primarily focuses on a point in the father’s life filled with trauma. Firstly, the sexual abuse he was subjected to under the Catholic church at the age of 12 and secondly the trauma related to his father’s alcoholism and its place within the family home.

Aside from the photographic practice undertaken within the project, the work served as a method of deepening the artist’s relationship with his father as well as developing his understanding of self and its relation to the family history. The therapeutic qualities of photography enabled both Patrick and his father to embark on a journey which only proved to strengthen their bond between one another and their bond with ourselves.

The project has also found itself culminating in the form of a self-published edition of 1 photobook, which can be seen in video form at the following link: https://www.patrickobyrne.com/ill-be-damned-book