The Second Shift: In Our Own Image - Photography and the Social Gaze

This exhibition in Photo Museum Ireland’s In Our Own Image programme, Photography & the Social Gaze, is a landmark survey which undertakes a critical reframing of the way Irish life has been represented through photography.

It includes work from The Second Shift, which confronts the gendering of home and family. It challenges expectations of women's work and the notion that home is inherently women's realm. It takes a critical view of Article 41.2 of the Irish Constitution which says Ireland recognises that "by her life within the home, woman gives to the state a support without which the common good cannot be achieved" and that "mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home".

The works in Photography & the Social Gaze touch on the most pressing issues around Irish identity and history, coming to terms with the legacies of the past and the challenges of the future. The exhibition showcases major bodies of work by Irish artists at the cutting-edge of contemporary trends, helping to interrogate what Irishness is, and to reimagine what it might look like. 

Featured artists: Ciaran Óg Arnold, Charlie Beare, Enda Bowe, Ala Buisir, Niamh Crowley, Dorje de Burgh, Dennis Dinneen, Eamonn Doyle, Mark Duffy, Tessy Ehiguese, Diego Fabro, David Farrell, Clare Gallagher, Ruth Gonsalves Moore, Richard Gosnold, Ailbhe Greaney, Anthony Haughey, Kim Haughton, Tobi Isaac-Irein, Dragana Jurišić, Jialin Long, Alen MacWeeney, Gareth McConnell, Patrick McCoy, Martin McGagh, Tony Murray, Brian Newman, Mandy O’Neill, Tony O’Shea, Pauline Rowan, Paul Seawright, Victor Sloan, Pete Smyth, Pádraig Spillane, and Donovan Wylie. Curated by: Trish Lambe & Darren Campion, with Brendan Maher