Ireland’s photographic heritage is becoming much easier to explore, with Photo Museum Ireland launching a new online catalogue featuring more than 70 works from its national collection of contemporary photography.
The new resource launches during National Heritage Week, offering the public an opportunity to discover the photographers, projects and bodies of work that have helped shape photography in Ireland.
Established in 2021, the Photo Museum Ireland Collection was created to preserve the work and creative legacies of Irish photographic artists. Rather than focusing solely on individual photographs, the collection brings together portfolio sets and larger bodies of work, helping to retain the stories and context behind an artist’s practice.
The online catalogue includes work by artists including Akihiko Okamura, Helen Hooker O’Malley and Tony O’Shea. It also reflects Photo Museum Ireland’s ongoing work with living artists and estates to identify, digitise and preserve significant projects from across their careers.
For Trish Lambe, Director of Photo Museum Ireland, making the collection available online is an important step in ensuring that Ireland’s photographic history can be experienced by a much wider audience.
The new catalogue allows visitors to browse by artist, explore individual works and learn more about the bodies of work held in the collection. While the resource currently represents its first phase, further artist information, exhibition histories, research and related material will be added over time.
The project has been part-funded by the Heritage Council, whose support has helped Photo Museum Ireland make a substantial part of the collection accessible to audiences both in Ireland and internationally.
For photographers represented in the collection, the project also offers an opportunity to bring renewed attention to work created throughout their careers. Artist Lorraine Tuck said the digitisation of artists’ practices can help bring museum collections to life while preserving their legacies for future generations.
The timing of the launch also highlights the wider role photography has played in documenting Ireland’s social and cultural history. Alongside its development as an art form, photography has provided a visual record of how the country and its communities have changed over the decades.
Throughout National Heritage Week, Photo Museum Ireland will also highlight individual works from the collection, sharing the stories behind the photographs and the artists who created them.
The collection is free to explore online, with the catalogue expected to grow as new acquisitions and research are added.
Explore the Photo Museum Ireland Collection Catalogue.
