Seamus Murphy - Inspiration
To mark the centenary of Ireland's uprising, award-winning war photographer Seamus Murphy revisits the country he left behind in the hope of capturing the nation's real character.
It had been three decades since he'd emigrated from Ireland, having spent the intervening years travelling across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the US and Latin America – winning seven World Press Photo Awards in the process.
Murphy had photographed the last remaining survivors of those who had fought for the country's independence. To mark the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, Murphy tried to capture the spirit of contemporary Irish life in images. Between June 2014 and September 2015, the photographer spent as much time travelling around Ireland as he could – popping up at housing estates, fundraisers and cattle marts, always seeking something that couldn't easily be put into words. Though Murphy spent most of his time despairing that he wasn't getting enough material – the country and its people just felt too familiar, he says – signs of a changed Ireland inevitably seeped into the photographs.
Property collapse, migration and open sexuality, for example, have all been dominant issues in the country's recent history. They would be tough to avoid in any snapshot of Ireland.
Home is Another Place - Seamus Murphy
In this lyrical, intimate piece, Murphy explores some of the changes that Ireland has undergone in the past thirty years, as well as the ways that he has changed personally, and how this evolution affects the way he sees his home country.
