Tuesday 11 June 2013

Picture of the Week

Delay on the picture of the week this week. Apologies the PhD workload has been hectic recently with an annual review and a recent conference talk down in Dublin. Anyway, we will push on, better late than never.

This week our picture is taken by Philip Jones Griffiths and for me was one of the most poignant images in the current Northern Ireland: 30 years of Photography exhibition, at both the MAC and Belfast Exposed. The picture depicts a soldier staring stonily through a scratched plexiglass shield. It has an eerie ghost-like quality, where the visage seems to be slowly fading away right before our eyes. It's almost a metaphor for post-Peace Process Northern Ireland: a past that is slowly forgotten but still remains either in memory or photography.  

© Philip Jones Griffiths Soldier Behind Shield, Northern Ireland, 1973

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