A powerful photographic exhibition in partnership with Donegal County Archives opens to the public in Donegal County Museum at 6pm on Culture Night, Friday 23rd September. The exhibition showcases the work of Ann Doherty, who worked as a documentary photographer across the globe between 1994 – 2005. Ann photographed for the Sunday Times Magazine between 1997- 2004, covering the after-effects of war, Communism and poverty throughout the world.
This curated selection of her photographs features ordinary people often living in extraordinary situations across the world from Ireland to Sierra Leone, from Italy to Armenia, Ukraine to Egypt. Her images bring the lives of people from many different nations and cultures sharply into focus against backgrounds of conflict, poverty, social deprivation, hardship, trauma, and remoteness. The stark beauty and honesty of Ann’s work reveals the indomitable spirit and will to survive of those pushed to the edge of human experience.
Dr Niamh Brennan, Donegal County Council Archivist, “In 2018 Donegal County Archives was honoured to be the recipient of a large collection of photographs of the work of renowned and talented documentary photographer Ann Doherty. The County Archives and Donegal County Museum are delighted to have received a Heritage Stewardship Fund award from the Heritage Council this year. We have appointed Ciarán Walsh, curator and archivist, to catalogue this wonderful collection and, in collaboration with Ann Doherty, a selection of the photographs will be exhibited at the County Museum this autumn.”
In the exhibition Ann describes her journey “I would set out with a small ruck sack, camera, film and little else- not even a map or guide book, just curiosity and a need to go into the unknown with an open mind and spirit, in order to witness those who were struggling in their everyday lives in situations far worse than my own….The different paths I took, abroad and at home, taught me about the power of words and images to highlight the plight of the disenfranchised in life’s margins, long before social media was invented.”
Ann’s family hail from Gaoth Dobhair and Gola Island.
This project was funded through the Heritage Council Stewardship Fund 2022.
Admission is free. Donegal County Museum, High Road, Letterkenny, Co Donegal T 074 9124613 E [email protected]
Opening Hours
Monday – Friday: 10:00 - 16:30
Closed for lunch 12.30 – 13.00
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