Untitled (Attachment) from The Second Shift: Acquisition by the Arts Council Northern Ireland

Clare Gallagher is an established photographer from Northern Ireland, who has exhibited internationally and in 2021 was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.

This work comes from a series and photobook titled ‘The Second Shift’, a term given to the hidden and unaccounted for labour of housework and childcare, often primarily carried out by women, on top of their paid employment. Hidden in plain sight and veiled by familiarity and
insignificance, the second shift is largely absent from photographs of home and family. In both photographs purchased from the series, our attention is drawn to the invisible nature of the emotional labour of this work and its complexity, as conflicted feelings surrounding familial relationships and home are explored.