Eddie Mulholland & Peter Macdiarmid judging the AIB Photojournalism Awards 2012 in Dublin.

I’ve been to a mystical land! It’s a land where press photographers are loved and feted. They are considered professionals whose role is vital to the nation. They are not abused on the streets and the Head Of State, the President,  joins them for dinner when they have their annual awards ceremony, the winner of which is whisked away in a limo’ for a live prime time television interview. They are interviewed again for breakfast television and their winning photograph is plastered all over the national newspapers. One previous winner told me how he and a colleague were given a civic reception in their home town the year they won. To get there you just head north, turn left at Birmingham and keep on going.  You’ll probably need a boat or a plane, but it’s not as far as you think.
If you think I’m talking about the U.S.A then you are wrong! This land of dreams, where our profession is so loved is in fact the Republic Of  Ireland.
I’ve just returned from Dublin, after three days of judging the Press Photographer’s Association of Ireland ‘AIB Photojournalism Awards 2012’, along with my colleague photographer Peter Macdiarmid from Getty Images and legendary former picture editor of The Irish Times, Dermot O’Shea. We spent a fantastic weekend going through the cream of Irish press photography. The decisions were hard to make, but we were happy to spend the hours in a darkened room because the photography was just amazing. The results are almost a state secret, only to be revealed in February at the gala black tie dinner attended by non other than the Irish President Michael Higgins himself! Peter and myself were treated like visiting dignitaries and taken to the best restaurants and bars in Dublin, where the reception was never anything other than fiercely friendly. We are both looking forward to returning for the main event.

The thing that struck us both during the visit and which spurred me on to writing this, my first ever blog post, was how different the atmosphere was around the subject of press photography in Ireland. It really is respected, all the things I mentioned at the start of this post are true. On the final day of judging we were visited in the hotel, where the judging was taking place, by six photographers from the Irish national press for a photocall and on the following day the readers were put off their breakfast by our (mine and Pete’s) ugly mugs staring back at them. These national papers will also run massive spreads after the winners have been announced. The winner, as I said earlier, is taken to be interviewed on ‘The Late Late Show’, Ireland’s highest rated and most prestigious television show on RTE. This is fantastic support and publicity for the world of photojournalism and it is quite obviously paying dividends evident in the Irish public’s attitude to our job. The sponsor, Allied Irish Bank (AIB) must take a great deal of the credit too. They tour the exhibition to their branches around the country bringing this high quality work to the grassroots. Small communities getting the chance to see the work of the country’s finest. AIB also marry the tour to local festivals, so the photography becomes part of community events. It’s a simple idea but brilliantly effective because it makes people feel part of our job. It’s there for them to see in their high street.
Bearing all this in mind makes you wonder. Could we TheBPPA do the same !? Maybe we would need a fairy godmother sponsor? The work involved in touring any exhibition is daunting and probably beyond a volunteer lead organisation at the moment, but the publicity in other areas of the media must be achievable. We’ve got friends in television, why can’t we get them onside!? We all mostly work for newspapers and magazines, why can’t we get them to do spreads of member’s work when we have a completed project? I used to do ‘vox pops’ with Boris Johnson, surely City Hall is a prime exhibition space?We need ideas and we need everyone to get behind the cause…….
Whatever we do we’d better do it fast! The Leveson Inquiry set up following the phone hacking scandal, was very quick to turn it’s guns on press photographers. It’s easy to see why….we are ‘low hanging fruit’. The visible face of journalism. We stand on the street, we don’t hide in an office. We come face to face with the public and from experience I can tell you they are not big fans. We need to win them over. We need them to understand that we are there to serve them. We are there to show them what’s going on.
Andrew Wiard, a fellow TheBPPA board member and respected photojournalist, coined this brilliant phrase at a recent meeting when he said, “We are the eyes of the public..”
All we have to do now is work to get them to see it!

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8 Comments

  1. Top read Ed, Cant wait to see the entries.

  2. How wonderful to read this. This is how it once was and still is in some other countries. Such a shame that in Britain the situation is so dire. Fleet Street, the once envy of the journalistic world is gone, but sadly it’s spirit which lived on, is now heading the same way.
    Sadly I don’t think British TV will do much on covering press photography. Their absolutely wrong portrayal of our industry I fear is not accidental; if we get seen as the bad guys on the streets, then TV gets better and exclusive access, thus wiping out competition from us newspaper folk, who often get deeper into a story and produce a more in-depth coverage.
    When I was at the British Press Awards in 2006, Sky TV was there with a cameraman and the event was recorded; alas it never saw the light of day. On the flip side, I’ve been interviewed by CNN and other foreign channels on several occasions.

  3. Great work Ed. It’s like your first day at school all over again……! Blog MORE!

  4. I guess they were the Irish eyes of the Republic??

  5. Great to hear that you and Peter enjoyed your stay here Ed. The hospitality you received is nothing unique, we extend it to all our visitors.
    The Press Photographers Association of Ireland (PPAI) is very fortunate to have the Allied Irish Bank as our sponsors and I know from discussions with their directors, when I was on the PPAI’s committee, that they value their association with us very highly. It is, if I remember correctly, largest sponsorship they do annually.
    But the banking sector in Ireland is a very tainted bed-fellow and in light of the fact that AIB’s shares have crashed through the floor in the past few years, indeed, down to €0.19 at one stage before their effective nationalisation, we don’t know how long they’ll stick with us.
    And yes, every year we have either the President or the taioseach (Prime Minister) address us and present some of the awards, while Irish sporting icons present others.
    The public’s attitude towards press photographers here is markedly different to that in the UK. Possibly totally unconnected is the fact that we have only five resident paps covering the whole of the Republic. Small wonder that internationally renowned actors, musicians, band members etc buy holiday homes here.
    Here they can walk through towns and villages where the only attention they’ll receive is a doffed cap or a friendly comment about the soft weather.
    Many thanks for your kind comments and I look forward to seeing you both on February 17th.

  6. Brilliant. Very nicely said. Let’s hope we can follow their lead.

  7. Well done Eddie and welcome to the blogosphere.
    I’ve favourited this and look forward to seeing your future musings.
    Tom

  8. I think the lack of a “paparazzi culture” is the difference between Irish & British attitudes to photojournalism. You mention photojournalism to an English person, they think of scrums of cockney wideboys flashing away at Jordan or peeking over a hedge. We don’t do that kind of Ess Haych One Tee here.
    Or more importantly, it doesn’t sell well here.


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