Participants are also asked to provide a photograph themselves on their Communion day. The result is a visual and audio oral history archive that speaks to key time of change in Irish society.
Reading the photograph (an approach based on Hito Steyerl’s work):
The majority of participants provided whatever image was easily accessible, and many had to do some (much appreciated) digging to find any image at all. Most of these photographs bear little resemblance to the professionally taken portraits that once adorned living room walls. This absence of official portraiture revealing the decline in value that Irish families place on such mementos, and by extension the dwindling importance given to religious rituals as milestone markers in life.
Steyerl, H. (2012) ‘In Defense of the Poor Image’, in The Wretched of the Screen. Berlin: Sternberg Press, pp. 31–45.