Blasket Case: Jan O'Connell trades bricks and mortar for rocks and water in Kerry exhibition
Jan pictured with Lorcán Ó Cinnéide, Manager of the Blasket Centre. Picture: Domnick Walsh
A: It’s more like architectural photography chose me. Like all young photographers, I tried all genres, but I got a taste for architectural photography when I was asked to photograph a building designed by my late friend Geoff Butler, who was with O' Riordan Staehli Architects.
Shooting buildings is intense. You must get to know them, understand the design and get into the head of the architects, developers and builders. You must study how they sit in their surrounding and how different lighting conditions affect their personality. Multiple visits at different times of the day and night are often needed to capture that one signature image that can live on long after the building itself.
The methodology used in architectural photography was used in the wilds of Kerry to light and compose the landscape in a new way. When you look at my rock images, I hope that the strength and the personalities of these subjects speaks for itself.
A: This has been our special place for years and the landscape has influenced and nurtured us as a family. It was a busy year, immersing myself in my project and also travelling for work a few days every week to accommodate my architectural and corporate clients.
A: It was in 2008, The Elysian, developed by O'Flynn Construction and designed by Wilson Architecture. In 2020, I was commissioned to photograph John Cleary’s Penrose One and Two, also designed by Wilson’s, both built by PJ Hegarty.
I was shooting both projects from the planning, to concrete pours, to finished exteriors and all the incredible interiors that just get better and better, enticing many new companies to set up their head office in Cork.
A. The rocks in themselves are extremely powerful but my methodology had to be reviewed many times to allow their individual personalities and strength be experienced in the images. They are my pillars of survival - emblems of endurance, custodians of courage, set out on our shores to remind us of a new path. These rocks represent the marginal, whose existence, by design or by default, has been separated from the mainstream norms.
When shooting the sea images, I was immersed for hours on end staring into my composition, which was a black screen. I carefully chose this black backdrop of rock and waited for my sea images to jump into the frame, creating their own world as I clicked the shutter. I trusted that there would be a point where my intention collided with nature and somewhere in the middle is where the image happened. There is an indescribable excitement and freedom when working with this ever-changing world. I am completely in the hands of the elements creating these images.
A. Exhibiting at Ionad an Bhlascaoid, presented by Fenton projects, is a wonderful opportunity to showcase my work in the magnificent newly refurbished building, that sits within a 10k radius of all the images in this exhibition.
A. Visitors when they tour the peninsula will hopefully discover more, see beyond the immense beauty, and experience the strength and power that exists in the landscape of Chorca Dhuibhne.
