A current exhibition by Czech and Slovak photographers living in Ireland focuses on the things they find unusual about their new home: changeable weather, other nationalities, the sea
IRELAND’S EVER-CHANGING weather and its multi-ethnicity are among the many sources of inspiration for Czech and Slovak photographers living here who have opened an exhibition on the subject in Dublin.
“People are very open-minded here. In Slovakia, we don’t have so many ethnic minorities as you do in Ireland. Moore Street is my favourite area to take photographs in Dublin. It’s like theatre down there,” says Marcel Macinga, who left Slovakia in 2007 to work for a multinational technology firm in Dublin.
Macinga is one of nine photographers from the Czech Slovak Photo Club (Ireland) showing his work at the exhibition, which is being held at the European Commission office on Dawson Street.
The club was set up in Dublin in 2007 to develop and popularise photography among the 20,000-strong Slovak and Czech community in Ireland, most of who arrived in the country following the big bang EU enlargement in 2004.
Macinga, who is president of the club, says one of his big photographic influences is the New York street photographer Markus Hartel.
“To get the real picture, you have to live in the community and that’s what I’ve been doing here,” he says.
“Ireland is a very beautiful country and it has helped spark my passion for landscape photography. The scenery is very different to the Czech Republic and I particularly love photographing the sea,” says Viktor Pressl, a 29-year-old Czech amateur photographer who has lived in Ireland since 2005.
“Photography offers me a different way to explore Ireland and perhaps my photos can offer a fresh look at the country because I’m viewing it through foreign eyes,” says Pressl.
Marek Kubinek is a 36-year-old Czech, who has been living in Ireland since 2004 and has no plans to return to the Czech Republic any time soon.
“I was taking photographs for 15 years before I came to Ireland. My father had a darkroom in our house and it became a big hobby of mine. Now I’ve turned the lens on this country,” says Kubinek. “I think I’ve seen plenty of things you couldn’t see without a camera.”
Kubinek’s photographs in the exhibition focus on more traditional landscapes, in contrast with the urban images captured by Macinga. “The weather is very different in Ireland in the way it changes every few hours. You get very different skies,” he says.
Kubinek, who lives in Bray, says one of the reasons he came to Ireland in the first place was that he heard it was a mystical country.
“I don’t know if I will ever go back to the Czech Republic,” he says.
The exhibition, Ireland by Czech and Slovak Photographers, is open to the public on weekdays at the European Commission Representation, 18 Dawson Street, Dublin 2 until Friday.
The Czech Slovak Photo Club (Ireland) meets every month in Dublin. Most members are from Slovakia and the Czech Republic but all nationalities are welcome. For more information see irskofotoklub.com