Bowe, Enda - At Mirrored River

Background information, content

"The project titled ‘At Mirrored River’ was inspired by the Gaelic word Teannalach (pron. “chann-ah-lack”). Teannalach is a Gaelic word used in the West of Ireland which means awareness. In particular, it is awareness of that which is intangible and hushed; of being aware of the quietness and presence of people and the spaces they inhabit. With this in mind, l sought to capture the teannalach of stories and dreams within a singular town. The project is entirely made in an ordinary small industrial town in Ireland although it is not a literal documentation about the town nor Ireland. The chosen space is deliberately reflective of other similar industrial towns across the world. It was important for me to construct an unrecognizable geographical picture of a town which didn’t have recognizable iconic images, to avoid the obvious. I wanted to look at the ordinary every day spaces we inhabit and our ordinary daily lives because for me, the ordinary is where all the of the universal beauty, magic and possibilities lye. As the late influential writer John McGahern said, 'the ordinary is the most precious thing in life'. In focusing the work and containing the project within one town and it’s inhabited spaces, my personal challenge was to find the light and the beauty in the ordinary, the hope and the optimism where others might only initially see the mundane and the routine. As the project unfolded, it became less about the location of the project and more about mapping the feelings contained within the town. ‘At Mirrored River’ is about the awareness of who we are, the questions we ask and the dreams we project. It is about the teannalach of a place.
'At Mirrored River' has been praised by Irish Times Art Critic Aidan Dunne as a project in which “the ordinary is leavened with the extraordinary”. (...) "A small selection of book spreads from At Mirrored River. The project has been exhibited at The Visual Centre Of Contemporary Art, Ireland, July to Sept 2016 and has received nominations for the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize and the Prix Picet Award. The book has received support from people including film directors Ken Loach and Lenny Abrahamson, writer Colm Toibin, The Victoria & Albert Museum, photographers Tom Wood, Donovan Wylie and Eamonn Doyle." (Enda BOWE)

About Irish photographer Enda BOWE

The photographic work by Enda BOWE is concerned with storytelling and the search for light and beauty in the ordinary. He presents his work through exhibition and the publication of photographic monographs. Influences in his work include writer John McGahern, poet John Glenday, and directors Lynne Ramsey, Ken Loach and Lenny Abrahamson. To date his work has been exhibited in galleries and museums including the Victoria & Albert Museum , London, the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, the National Portrait Gallery, London, Fotohof, Salzburg, Fotomuseum, Winterthur, and The Visual Centre Of Contemporary Art, Ireland. His recent collection of work ‘At Mirrored River’ received the international Solas Photography Award 2015 and has been nominated for the Prix Pictet Award 2016 and the Deutsche Borse Foundation Photography Prize 2016. Bowe’s first monograph 'Kilburn Cherry' published by J&J Books received the Birgit Skiold Artist Award 2014, Whitechapel Gallery London. His book 'At Mirrored River' coincided with the exhibition of ‘At Mirrored River’ at The Visual Centre of Contemporary Art, Ireland which ran from 2nd July to 16th October 2016. His third monograph ‘Birds to the Air’ will be published by Plum Plum Books in spring 2017. Enda BOWE lives and works in London.

Photo books by Enda BOWE