Family Album

Description

Family Album – Photographs from a Belfast community

In 1982, a camera club started at the local community centre, and for my 16th birthday my dad gave me a camera. The simple message was; ‘go there, do something with the camera and stay out of trouble’! The idea behind the club was to encourage people to record the life of the area before the big change, or ‘re-development’ as it was called. I had my brief and started work with enthusiasm and a sense of purpose. What remained of the unique Belfast community of Ballymacarrett/Short Strand was to disappear in a short time, changed entirely, forever. Large swathes of the area had already been bulldozed from existence; I caught the tail-end. I look back two generations with amazement at how we managed to get through it all and still manage a smile. They were hard times that I have no nostalgia for. In 1997, I sent the photographer and friend of the area, Gilles Peress, a selection of images and asked if he would like to write something. Twenty-eight years later, I felt I owed the community a chance to see what it was all about. I have chosen 100 photographs for this exhibition covering streets, housing, faces, conflict, fleadh/festival, new build/the move and daily life.