While photography has opened the door to exotic, far-flung locales, for some, inspiration hits a little closer to home. Take the Irish photographer Eamonn Doyle, who has had to look no further than his doorstep for his first solo London exhibition at Michael Hoppen Gallery, entitled ‘End.’ – the third and final chapter in a series of projects exploring the multi-cultural, working class area of north Dublin’s Parnell Street.
Born in Dublin in 1969, Doyle began photographing around the city centre in the late 1980s, before embarking on a hiatus a decade later in order to concentrate on music production. He returned to photography in 2008 after a reflective period of rediscovering Samuel Beckett’s writings.
‘Returning to photography in recent years, I set out to work with what I knew,’ Doyle explains. ‘As a long-term resident of Parnell Street in Dublin's north inner city, there was a wealth of photographic subjects on my doorstep. At times it's edgy and raw and vibrant, while at others, it seems half-sunk in a weary pathos.’
Elusive fragments of Dublin’s streets come to the fore in Doyle’s work as he hones in on fleeting details. ‘While photographing, I began to strip away as much of the context and background from the subjects as I could. The subjects are all shot at close range, but respectfully, perhaps even reverently,’ Doyle has said. ‘The pictures show only fragments of possible narratives, but for me, every life has weight and drama, even if its meaning is ultimately elusive.’
Whereas ‘i’ – the first chapter in the trilogy – traces a colourful cast of anonymous, lone figures, and ‘ON’ casts the city’s denizens in dramatic, black-and-white scenes, ‘End.’ is both a natural combination of and conclusion to its predecessors. Like a forensic investigator, Doyle isolates fragments he deems important; each image is a clue that forms part of a larger picture of the city. Obscured through flowers, a child gazes into the pool at the Garden of Remembrance, while another image takes on an almost painterly quality in its abstract composition. The series revels in anonymity, stripping away all social, contextual and biographical cues.
Add to the mix an ongoing collaboration with fellow Dublin artist Niall Sweeney, who punctuates Doyle’s photographs with drawings, and the city becomes a labyrinthine tangle of transient narratives. Through Doyle’s lens, these seemingly mundane urban encounters become curious and fascinating.
The show is the third and final chapter in a series of projects exploring the multi-cultural, working class area of north Dublin’s Parnell Street.
Doyle began photographing around the city centre in the late 1980s, before embarking on a hiatus a decade later in order to concentrate on music production.
Elusive fragments of Dublin’s streets come to the fore in Doyle’s work as he hones in on fleeting details.
‘As a long-term resident of Parnell Street in Dublin’s north inner city, there was a wealth of photographic subjects on my doorstep. At times it’s edgy and raw and vibrant, while at others, it seems half-sunk in a weary pathos,’ he explains.
‘The pictures show only fragments of possible narratives, but for me, every life has weight and drama, even if its meaning is ultimately elusive.
END. Moore Street Extensions, 2016. Courtesy the artist and Michael Hoppen Gallery
END. GPO Trees, 2016. Courtesy the artist and Michael Hoppen Gallery
END. Red straw, 2016. Courtesy the artist and Michael Hoppen Gallery
Add to the mix an ongoing collaboration with fellow Dublin artist Niall Sweeney, who punctuates Doyle’s photographs with drawings, and the city becomes a labyrinthine tangle of transient narratives.
Like a forensic investigator, Doyle isolates fragments he deems important; each image is a clue that forms part of a larger picture of the city.
INFORMATION
‘End.’ is on view until 15 July. For more information, visit the Michael Hoppen Gallery website
ADDRESS
Michael Hoppen Gallery
3 Jubilee Place
London, SW3 3TD
-
Inside Alessandro Michele’s showstopping debut haute couture show for ValentinoThis afternoon in Paris (29 Janaury 2025), the Italian designer hit new heights with an eclectic, era-traversing couture collection for Valentino
-
Inside Bell Labs, the modernist vision behind Severance's minimalist settingWe explore the history of Bell Labs - now known as Bell Works - the modernist Eero Saarinen-designed facility in New Jersey, which inspired the dystopian minimalist setting of 'Severance'
-
Toronto’s DesignTO 2025 highlights – design and art to see across the cityAt DesignTO, the largest festival of its kind in Canada, determined artists and designers gather in Toronto in full embrace of chilly weather. Our on-the-ground correspondent reports on its standout moments
-
‘You have to face death to feel alive’: Dark fairytales come to life in London exhibitionDaniel Malarkey, the curator of ‘Last Night I Dreamt of Manderley’ at London’s Alison Jacques gallery, celebrates the fantastical
-
Steve McQueen presents a portrait of protest in BritainTurner Contemporary’s groundbreaking exhibition Resistance reframes the history of protest, reminding us of photography’s political potential
-
When galleries become protest sites – a new exhibition explores the art of disruptionIn a new exhibition at London's Auto Italia, Alex Margo Arden explores the recent spate of art attacks and the 'tricky' discourse they provoke
-
'It's a metaphor for life': rising star and 'Queer' poster artist Jake Grewal on his new London exhibitionBritish artist Jake Grewal speaks to Simon Chilvers about 'Under the Same Sky' as it opens at Studio Voltaire in London
-
Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025: Tate Modern’s cultural shapeshifting takes the art prizeWe sing the praises of Tate Modern for celebrating the artists that are drawn to other worlds – watch our video, where Wallpaper’s Hannah Silver gives the backstory
-
Inside the distorted world of artist George RouyFrequently drawing comparisons with Francis Bacon, painter George Rouy is gaining peer points for his use of classic techniques to distort the human form
-
‘I'm endlessly fascinated by the nude’: Somaya Critchlow’s intimate and confident drawings are on show in London‘Triple Threat’ at Maximillian William gallery in London is British artist Somaya Critchlow’s first show dedicated solely to drawing
-
Surrealism as feminist resistance: artists against fascism in Leeds‘The Traumatic Surreal’ at the Henry Moore Institute, unpacks the generational trauma left by Nazism for postwar women
