In May, we joined the launch of Futures at PhotoIreland in Dublin. Here we talked to Ángel Luis González, founder of PhotoIreland Foundation. He shares his thoughts on the festival, photography in Ireland and the Futures platform.
Ángel, could you tell us about your motivation to start this festival?
I found that it was hard for photographers to enter the Art scene in Ireland, partly because the discipline was underrepresented, and partly because those that were promoting it in Ireland at the time, they had a narrow vision, not very open to new ways of working within the medium.
Why do you think that was the case?
We saw that talent that came from the Photography degrees did not have easy access to galleries, magazines or other platforms that could provide visibility, while those coming from Fine Art programmes had a lesser challenge.
Was this your inspiration to start PhotoIreland Festival?
Indeed, a need to show the existing diversity and to add visibility in the fast changing discipline of photography was the starting point that inspired the idea of a festival for Ireland.
We looked at other festivals abroad, such as PhotoEspaña, and researched internationally. We saw that these festivals opened a healthy dialogue about photography and that is what we wanted to achieve in Ireland as well.
Do you think you succeeded in achieving this?
We certainly have made a serious difference over the last 10 years! The festival was the first project but our ambition is bigger; we started running other projects outside the festival period, now all run under the umbrella of the PhotoIreland Foundation - a photobook library, and Arts bookshop, a gallery, a print fair, editorial projects, and more.
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