Description
Book SynopsisThese 87 black & white photographs taken by Alen MacWeeney in Dublin in 1963/5 are spontaneous images of Dublin and Dubliners in all areas of the city, a street odyssey reflecting a cross section of the people, their habits and behaviour, ten years before Ireland joined the European Union and the wider world. The text on facing pages is composed of social commentary gleaned from a posting of each of the book's photographs on Dublin social media platform Down Memory Lane, eliciting a flood of 70,000 responses during 2020. These photographs of Dublin and Dubliners in 1963 have pertinent social and historical value as attested by their placement in numerous US Universities and museums. The text offers a novel way of understanding and appreciating a full gamut of Dublin personalities through their reactions to the posting of these photographs during the current pandemic. The responses ranged from wonder and incredulity to heated derision, offset by the hilarity that characterize Dubliners. The richness of the commentary will be of interest to any Irish person curious to glimpse Dublin life in the '60s and to gauge the reactions of Dubliners today. MacSweeney's work partakes of the tradition of reportage by Walker Evans, Cartier Bresson, Robert Frank and Richard Avendon, to whom he was apprenticed in Paris during the late fifties.
Trade ReviewYou really want to buy the book. No self respecting Dubliner should be without it.
-- Gemma Tipton * The Irish Times *
My Dublin 1963/My Dubliners 2020 by Alen MacWeeney(Lilliput) is a charming idea, bringing together past and present, the visual image and the written word. From 1963 to 1965, MacWeeney took 89 striking black and white photographs of Dubliners, capturing the capital in all its diversity. Last year, his partner Pesya Altman sparked off a social media phenomenon in which people commented on the photos, giving a very modern perspective on what feels like ancient history.
* The Independent *
The richness of the comments will be of interest to any Irish person curious to glimpse Dublin life in the ’60s and gauge Dubliners’ reactions today. They are fascinating, comical, absurd and poignant, adding a unique dimension to Irish social history.
* Dublin Live *
Ultimately, the book is a celebration of this—community, identity, memory: connection, even in isolation.
-- Bel Kelly * Books Ireland *
