UTOPIAS vs. THE REALITIES OF LANDSCAPE: REPRESENTING NON-PLACE THROUGH ARCHIVE: A CONVERSATION WITH MARTIN CREGG

An Irish photographer and educator, Martin Cregg lives in Dublin and his work explores the history and culture of his native land, and his own place within it. Placing the photographic image at the centre of each work, he consistently draws on historical and archival sources, and wider movements in art to further contextualize and elucidate his projects. Twice nominated for the Prix Pictet, his book Midlands visually documents the conscious creation of place from non-place, driven by unchecked planning policy and greed. By retracting specific visual information and pictorial qualities, the work stands as a stark reminder of the havoc wreaked all across the Republic of Ireland by the failure of an economic model which eventually climaxed with the devastation of 2008’s financial meltdown.

In this interview, Martin also discusses the deeply personal and emotional inspiration behind A Fading Landscape, in which he revisits both his familial connections with the land, and his ultimate and inevitable separation from it. His latest ongoing work, The Plot, rooted in the historical archives of 100 years ago, is a new and contemporary photographic reading of the intelligence war between Republicans and British Crown forces, fought on the tense, claustrophobic streets around Dublin during Ireland’s War of Independence.