People / Places Photography

This section of Patrick's black and white photography portfolio consists of his studies of street scenes in urban environments in cities around the world including a large section of photographs of the Smithfield Horse Fair and wild horse photographs from Mongolia and Spain.


Each handprinted photograph is printed on silver gelatin based paper by the photographer Patrick Donald in his darkroom to the highest archival standards. Each of these editioned prints are accompanied by a certificate stating its nature and method of printing etc.. Both the print and the certificate are signed by the photographer on which both include a serial number for tracking  and archive purposes.

 

HORSES 

Ireland, a country steeped in the history of horses, has a continuing tradition of horse fairs. Monthly horse fairs are still held at Smithfield in Dublin, although the architecture of the area has been transformed. Horse owners from all over Ireland gather together to buy and sell their charges. Many of the old ways, such as slapping hands in doing the deal are still in use to this day, the survival of tradition contrasting starkly with the stainless steel and glass of the new look Dublin.  

In a recent trip to Spain Patrick took a wonderful wild horse photograph while documenting an age old tradition of looking after the wild horses of western Spain. This horse photograph and others can be viewed by clicking the link Horses above.

DUBLIN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Having lived in Dublin up until 2002, Patrick has a large collection of interesting black and white photographs of the city, dating back as far as 1996; Life as it was lived in Dublin, unchanged by the photographer's presence; therefore serving as a social documentary  of the changes that are taking place in our built environment. Many of them are quirky moments, juxtapositions, the narrative dance between humans and their city surroundings. Sometimes, fleeting moments can be captured to give results that are both pleasing to the eye and an interesting record of time gone by. All of these images are available as hand printed silver gelatin photographs, and when you click on the image it will display the relivent information about the particular photograph.

OLD DUBLIN PUB'S AND SHOPS

Dublin, and Ireland, as most people around the world are aware, has a long history of a pub orientated social scene. Many of the old public houses still exist today, some of which are represented on these prints. Some of the few remaining old shop fronts serve as an interesting backdrop to life in the city of Dublin.

 Dublin has been expanding rapidly over the last decade and has changed considerably, the new replacing the old. This is a time at which, without careful planning and conservation, Dublin could loose much of its unique and valuable character.

CUBA 2008

Since beginning his career over twelve years ago Patrick Donald has developed a unique street photography style.  His work aims to provide the viewer with an emotional insight into the documentary images he presents.  All of the images are made with little or no intervention by the photographer and go some way to capture the Cuban people as he found them in 2008 just one month before Fidel Castro stepped down as president. Patrick is particularly interested in the influence of environments, be they political, physical, or technological and on the advancement and evolution of societies.

These photographs serve as a record of the Cuban people at this particular time, and of the day to day life of the Capital, Havana. The photographer found the spirit and openness of the people influential to the pictures he made.

As a follow up to this exhibition Donald plans to return to Cuba in 2018, and again in 2028 to make similar pictures. In this way this series of work may become an important documentation of Cuban life in the beginning of the 21st century.  At a time of increasingly globalisation Cuba offers an insight into a society that has to a large extent escaped it’s influences.

Using old film cameras the resulting black and white negatives are hand printed on to Fiber based paper using traditional darkroom techniques.  The photographs featured here are referred to as ‘Vintage prints’ as they have been recently been taken and then printed by the photographer.

Please leave your contact details in the book provided if you would like to receive information about any further shows by this artist or would be interested in any commissioned work.

Print Details:

Black and White images are hand printed onto Fiber based silver gelatin paper

Colour images are Type-C prints.

The photographs have been stamped using the photographers stamp and signed and dated on the verso of the print using a graphite pencil.

MONGOLIA

Mongolia is a wonderful land full of interesting people, have a look at these images to get a taste of this spirited culture and how they rely on there horses for transport and a source of milk in there bid to survive against the odds.