The artists nominated by

PhotoIreland
in
2023

Using traditional and sustainable photographic printing techniques, Aindreas Scholz highlights issues of the climate crisis, focusing particularly on the effects of human activity. In The Vanishing Point, for instance, Scholz addresses plants that risk vanishing from extinction by experimenting with unfixed lumen prints. His practice is informed by historical and legendary texts and tales, and by referring to these narratives, he weaves engaging storytelling into visually enticing pieces.

Recent graduate Emilia Rigaud presents her ongoing work Fluid. Her at times ghostly and otherworldly creations serve as a sensitive visual account of her investigation into ‘hydrofeminism’ and our connection to water. Alluding to environmental concerns, Rigaud underlines that caring for water is caring for us. Her visual style presents work that occupies a dimension between the seemingly mythical, editorial, and at times documentary traditions too.

Making work inspired by highly personal circumstances, Phelim Hoey and Ryan Allen both address experiences relating to multiple sclerosis (MS), albeit adopting different approaches. Phelim Hoey – whom PhotoIreland has followed excitedly since his nomination to its triennial talent programme in 2019 – investigates the condition from direct experience, utilising multidisciplinary methods to expose the precariousness and unpredictability of his own body, reclaiming control and confidence over himself in the process.

Ryan Allen, meanwhile, is a new graduate, selected for PhotoIreland’s 2022 RADAR Graduate Residency. There is a lot of potential and determination in Allen’s work, and we feel he represents a movement towards the personal with a compassionate and empathetic tone. In his selected project, FathoM, Allen provides a visual response to his fears over the body’s transience, having witnessed the process of MS in his mother.

Also on the path of care, Niamh Barry is a photographer engaging with queer communities in Ireland through her personal projects in a warm and tender manner. We were first introduced to Barry’s work through No Queer Apologies – a project tinged with gentleness while also calling for solidarity and action – and it immediately captivated our attention. Her latest project, brought to FUTURES, Now and Forever, Interpersonally Queer, presents tender images which highlight the chosen families that are so important within the queer community.

Using traditional and sustainable photographic printing techniques, Aindreas Scholz highlights issues of the climate crisis, focusing particularly on the effects of human activity. In The Vanishing Point, for instance, Scholz addresses plants that risk vanishing from extinction by experimenting with unfixed lumen prints. His practice is informed by historical and legendary texts and tales, and by referring to these narratives, he weaves engaging storytelling into visually enticing pieces.

Recent graduate Emilia Rigaud presents her ongoing work Fluid. Her at times ghostly and otherworldly creations serve as a sensitive visual account of her investigation into ‘hydrofeminism’ and our connection to water. Alluding to environmental concerns, Rigaud underlines that caring for water is caring for us. Her visual style presents work that occupies a dimension between the seemingly mythical, editorial, and at times documentary traditions too.

Making work inspired by highly personal circumstances, Phelim Hoey and Ryan Allen both address experiences relating to multiple sclerosis (MS), albeit adopting different approaches. Phelim Hoey – whom PhotoIreland has followed excitedly since his nomination to its triennial talent programme in 2019 – investigates the condition from direct experience, utilising multidisciplinary methods to expose the precariousness and unpredictability of his own body, reclaiming control and confidence over himself in the process.

Ryan Allen, meanwhile, is a new graduate, selected for PhotoIreland’s 2022 RADAR Graduate Residency. There is a lot of potential and determination in Allen’s work, and we feel he represents a movement towards the personal with a compassionate and empathetic tone. In his selected project, FathoM, Allen provides a visual response to his fears over the body’s transience, having witnessed the process of MS in his mother.

Also on the path of care, Niamh Barry is a photographer engaging with queer communities in Ireland through her personal projects in a warm and tender manner. We were first introduced to Barry’s work through No Queer Apologies – a project tinged with gentleness while also calling for solidarity and action – and it immediately captivated our attention. Her latest project, brought to FUTURES, Now and Forever, Interpersonally Queer, presents tender images which highlight the chosen families that are so important within the queer community.

Projects nominations
Artist
Aindreas Scholz

Aindreas Scholz (b. 1981) grew up in a bilingual home, dividing his time between Ireland and Germany. He studied photography at the Technological University Dublin, followed by a postgraduate study at Goldsmiths College, London, where he deepened his understanding of critical and contemporary art-making theories and practices. Scholz subsequently trained as a teacher at the Institute of Education, University College London, developing specialist subject-specific skills for teaching art and photography to young people. Scholz’s artmaking focuses on environments affected by human activity, encompassing landscapes transformed by war, pollution, and the climate crisis. He experiments with alternative and sustainable photographic processes, to highlight the need to critically reflect on our daily carbon footprint. Scholz’s work has been exhibited in a range of institutions in Dublin, London, Brussels, Cologne, and Vienna.

Website:  aindreasscholz.com

Instagram: aindreasscholz

Artist
Emilia Rigaud

Emilia Rigaud (b. 1997) is a photographic artist who reflects on the fragility of life through analogue photography and small-scale installations. She strives to find the ethereal in the everyday, creating photographs in which time ceases to exist for a small moment – before inexorably disappearing to the past. A student of Photography at the Irish Institute for Art, Design and Technology in Dublin, Rigaud is currently following exchange studies in Finland at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. Her images have been published in various publications and photo festivals, including PhotoIreland Festival, Emerge Magazine, District Magazine, PhotoIreland New Normal and PhotoVogue.

Instagram: motherofoats

Artist
Niamh Barry

Niamh Barry (b.1998) is a self-taught photographer, videographer, and creative director based in Dublin, Ireland. She attempts to magnify queer Irish identities through portraiture and documentary photography; her work conveys intimate moments and emotions in a country marked by the rigid sexual mores of Catholicism. Challenging traditional notions of Irish femininity, masculinity and sexuality, works such as Queer Hearts of Dublin, No Queer Apologies and Now and Forever, Interpersonally Queer encourage spectators to connect with her subjects as both individuals and as community. Collaborating extensively with fellow queer Irish artists, her work is simultaneously a call for solidarity and a call to action.

Website: niamh-barry.com

Instagram: narryphotographyvids

Artist
Phelim Hoey

Phelim Hoey (b. 1984) is an Amsterdam-based visual artist, who studied documentary photography at the School of the Arts in Utrecht, the Netherlands. In his first days at art school, Hoey experienced the early symptoms of MS, a neurological illness with which he was formally diagnosed a few months later. His practice took on new meaning as a possible agent of healing, offering an important creative outlet for studying his condition, and for tracing his ever-changing relationship to his body. Incorporating a varied range of media – photography, film, ceramics or sculptural installation – Hoey’s work can be read as a form of conceptual storytelling. In fragile materials, or delicate still-lives depicting precariously-balanced objects, his works are wrought with vulnerability and tension. Hoey’s images have featured in a range of publications, including Foam Magazine, The British Journal of Photography and LensCulture.

Website: www.phelim-hoey.nl

Instagram: phelimhoey

Artist
Ryan Allen

Ryan Allen (b. 1992) is a visual artist from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Much of his work responds to unnoticed characteristics produced by past experiences. Allen holds a BA in Photography with Video from Ulster University, from where he graduated in July 2022. He has recently concluded a course in International Studies at Budapest’s Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. The artist was one of five recipients of the inaugural RADAR Research and Development Artist Residency for PhotoIreland.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Website: ryanallenphoto.myportfolio.com

Instagram: ryanbenjaminallen