Behind the Intimate Lens of John Minihan: A Poem in Black and White

“The National Gallery of Ireland inaugurated “Visual Poetry: The Photography of John Minihan” on March 14th, marking a milestone for the institution: not only is it the first exhibition dedicated to a single photographer at the gallery, but it celebrates John Minihan as Ireland’s preeminent photographer. Curated by Sarah McAuliffe, this career retrospective and paramount presentation of Minihan’s work to date traces his pictorial artistic journey from press journalism to portraiture and travel photography. Moving between artistic circles spanning visual, literary, musical, and performing arts, Minihan carved out his own niche, nodding to the exhibition’s referential title. Located in the Hugh Lane Room on the third floor, the exhibition opens with an entire wall dedicated to iconic portraits of cultural titans, including Francis Bacon, Edna O’Brien, Louis Armstrong, and Andy Warhol. Accompanying many of the original photographic panels are contextual anecdotes and bibliographic information that allow us to peer into Minihan’s personal relationships with many of his sitters, foregrounding the intimacy that defines his practice and underpins the brilliance of his work. His photographs forgo the artificiality of excessive technique and editing in favour of accuracy in portraying his subjects humanely. As Minihan’s own quote on the adjacent wall asserts: “Black and white are the colours of photography”, the ethos of unvarnished portrayal visibly permeates his oeuvre. His commitment to the monochrome poetically mirrors his commitment to honesty, as colours aren’t used to influence the audience’s perception of the subject. Additionally, the collaboration and mutual admiration between Minihan and those he photographed enabled him to capture them with candour. His long-standing friendship with Bacon, for instance, granted him rare access to the artist’s notoriously private studio, while Edna O’Brien’s portrait captures the quirk of her self-directed pose, inspired by the 1967 film “The Graduate”, alongside her glamorous demeanour and attire. Although the photographer’s inclusion in this late 20th-century artistic milieu placed him in an advantageous position among London’s bohemian elite, his work rejects the impulse to document cultural fashion, or the “in” crowd, simply because of their social capital. Instead, Minihan focused on capturing artists he admired and those who shared a passion for photography and the arts. In the middle of the triad of the exhibition’s walls lies what Minihan calls “the heartbeat of his practice”: the photographs of his hometown, Athy, in Co Kildare. Here, his work turns away from calculated celebrity shots and moves toward observational documentation of the town’s “common folk”. Characterised by scenes of their daily lives, with spontaneous gestures and little to no direct eye contact with the camera, the physical barrier between the subjects and the viewer seems to almost dissolve. His Athy portraits capture his people with dignity, emphasising their individuality, as witnessed in the famous photograph of Mrs Hurley, which prompted a nationwide response of letters sent to her after the photo was published in a newspaper. Across generations, from solemn elders to playful children, Minihan constructs a visual (yet almost lyrical) archive of his seldomly documented hometown. Another striking addition to the central wall is one of his most important works, the four-piece series “The Wake of Katy Tyrrell”, in which he captured the ritualised burial of provincial Irish tradition. It was through this body of work that Minihan established a connection with Samuel Beckett, whose portraits are mounted beside the Athy photographs, sparking a decades-long friendship and collaboration between the two. Beckett’s pictures became some of the most-recognised of the Nobel laureate’s, as well as of Minihan’s career. As such, “Visual Poetry” ties the photographer’s work to the literary, time and time again, demonstrating how his relationships with people in the arts, independent of medium, inspired Minihan’s photographic approach. In the centre of the room, display cases also offer archival insight into the photographer’s early career. Press badges from the 1980s and 1990s, newspaper clippings, photographs of Minihan from his youth, and drafts of his work with Samuel Beckett trace the development of his photographic journalism. However, the gallery’s dim lighting borders on being uncomfortable and creates visibility issues when attempting to read the captions that accompany the images. Beyond Ireland, Minihan’s career also encompasses a significant body of travel photography. As the field of press photography shifted toward digital formats, he left photojournalism to explore more personal subjects. On the third and last wall, places such as Havana, Cuba, are photographed, with great interest shown in the foreign culture’s religious practices, tied back to the recurring motif of spirituality in his work. The final section of the exhibition focuses on West Cork, where Minihan has been based for many years. In this encore, his attention, and our own, returns to the Irish landscape and community, culminating in photographs of St Joseph’s Chapel, bringing the exhibition back to its thematic roots. The exhibition is supported by a range of public programmes, including varied guided tours for all preferences. It is also important to note that, due to the sensitivity of photographic material to light, the exhibition will be presented in two iterations over its run, with the first instalment currently on display. Open until October 11th, 2026, Visual Poetry elucidates how John Minihan’s passion for literature, the everlasting constant in his career, ties his earliest experience with photography at 15 to his later travels as an independent artist. Much like poetry, his work allows the viewer to unearth the sublime from everyday life, regardless of who stands behind his lens.

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