Snapshot Stories

Visuality, Photography, and the Social History of Ireland, 1922-2000

Erika Hanna

Provides the first detailed exploration of Irish vernacular photographic practices, including photograph albums, studio portraits, and slide shows
Explores how Irish people used images to make meaning in their own lives by recording and keeping these ephemeral moments
Uses visual sources to write social history and explores the challenges and opportunities of this approach
Examines how languages of visibility have been used in Irish life and argues that this discourse is key to making sense of modern Ireland

Snapshot Stories

Visuality, Photography, and the Social History of Ireland, 1922-2000

Erika Hanna

Description

During the twentieth century, men and women across Ireland picked up cameras, photographing days out at the beach, composing views of Ireland's cities and countryside, and recording political events as they witnessed them. Indeed, while foreign photographers often still focused on the image of Ireland as bucolic rural landscape, Irish photographers-snapshotter and professional alike-were creating and curating photographs which revealed more complex and diverse images of Ireland. Snapshot Stories explores these stories. Erika Hanna examines a diverse array of photographic sources, including family photograph albums, studio portraits, the work of photography clubs and community photography initiatives, alongside the output of those who took their cameras into the streets to record violence and poverty. The volume shows how Irish men and women used photography in order to explore their sense of self and society and examines how we can use these images to fill in the details of Ireland's social history. By exploring this rich array of sources, Snapshot Stories asks what it means to see-to look, to gaze, to glance-in modern Ireland, and explores how conflicts regarding vision and visuality have repeatedly been at the centre of Irish life.

Snapshot Stories

Visuality, Photography, and the Social History of Ireland, 1922-2000

Erika Hanna

Introduction: Visuality, Photography, and the Social History of Ireland, 1922-2000
1:Beaches and Sunlight: Photograph Albums and Youthful Memories, c. 1922-1950
2:Clasped Hands and Clear Complexions: Studio Portraits and Respectability, 1922-1960
3:Dark Rooms and Developing Fluid: Amateur Photographers, Photographic Clubs, and the Irish Landscape, 1945-1970
4:Community and Photography: Empowerment, Activism, and the Image, 1970-1990
5:Flesh and Blood: Violence, Truth, and the Troubles, 1965-75
6:Power and Place: Documentary Photography, Politics, and Perspective, 1970-1995
Conclusion: Digital Analogue Images and the Appearance of Historical Distance
Bibliography

Snapshot Stories

Visuality, Photography, and the Social History of Ireland, 1922-2000

Erika Hanna

Author Information

Erika Hanna, Senior Lecturer in Modern History, University of Bristol

Erika Hanna was born in Dublin and grew up in Ireland, Britain, and the United States. She has held positions at the Universities of Oxford, Leicester, and Edinburgh, and is currently Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Bristol.