In this talk sponsored by the Snite Museum of Art, Irish-born photographer Alen MacWeeney will discuss his more than 40 photographs within the museum's critically acclaimed "Looking at the Stars": Irish Art at the University of Notre Dame.
MacWeeney, is one of the world's leading photographers. Born in Dublin in 1939, he began his professional career at age twenty when he was an assistant to the American fashion photographer and portraitist Richard Avedon. This experience began his extensive career in commercial and editorial photography for such newspapers and magazines as Vogue, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine.
The Snite Museum's presentation of his work focuses on MacWeeney's photographs of Ireland taken over six decades. Works from the mid-1960s capture the misty streets and cozy pubs of Dublin with Joycean affection. There are also sprawling country landscape views with flocks of sheep and ancient cairns. MacWeeney's best-known work of this period is the series Travellers: Tinkers No More. At a time when this centuries-old itinerant culture shifted from horse-drawn conveyance to motor-hauled caravans, the photographer explored their makeshift camps with his camera and tape recorder. This specific project will be the focus of MacWeeney's public talk.