Photographer Enda Bowe searches for light and beauty in At Mirrored River

Date
28 February 2017

Photographer Enda Bowe’s series At Mirrored River captures the serenity and quietness of a small industrial town in Ireland. Inspired by the Gaelic word “teannalach”, which means awareness, the project seeks out the beauty in the ordinary in a series of quietly powerful images. “With this in mind, l sought to capture the teannalach of stories and dreams within a singular town,” says Enda.

“It was important for me to construct an unrecognisable geographical picture of a town which didn’t have recognisable iconic images, to avoid the obvious,” explains the photographer. “I wanted to look at the ordinary every day spaces we inhabit and our ordinary daily lives because for me, the ordinary is where all the of the universal beauty, magic and possibilities lie. As the late influential writer John McGahern said: “the ordinary is the most precious thing in life”. McGahern is an influence for the writer, along with the poet John Glenday, and directors Lynne Ramsey, Ken Loach and Lenny Abrahamson.

Imbued with hope and optimism, the project finds feeling in the familiar and mundane. Enda’s project received the international Solas Photography Award 2015 and has been nominated for the Prix Pictet Award 2016 and the Deutsche Borse Foundation Photography Prize 2016.

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Enda Bowe: At Mirrored River

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Enda Bowe: At Mirrored River

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Enda Bowe: At Mirrored River

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Enda Bowe: At Mirrored River

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Enda Bowe: At Mirrored River

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Enda Bowe: At Mirrored River

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Enda Bowe: At Mirrored River

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Enda Bowe: At Mirrored River

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Enda Bowe: At Mirrored River

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Owen Pritchard

Owen joined It’s Nice That as Editor in November of 2015 leading and overseeing all editorial content across online, print and the events programme, before leaving in early 2018.

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