Lorraine Tuck

Lorraine Tuck is from Co. Galway. Much of her work to date has been influenced by Connemara. Her mother and grandparents were born in Recess and her grandmother still resides there. Lorraine has spent much of her childhood exploring this wild countryside.¹

Lorraine’s interest in art history led her to try painting and drawing as a young girl. She took up photography in 1994 after she bought her first camera. Lorraine began developing her own photographs at the age of fifteen in a makeshift darkroom in her Mother’s kitchen; often working at night while all the family were in bed. In 1999, she went to study photography in Sallynoggin and then, later went to Newport University in South Wales to complete a B.A. in Documentary Photography with honours.

On returning from university in 2003, Lorraine sold her first series of photographs using large format called ‘Cillín’ or otherwise known as ‘The Children’s Burial Grounds’ into a private collection. This work of the unconsecrated sites of stillborn infants became Lorraine’s best known work. Thereafter a second edition of photographs was purchased by the National University of Ireland Galway.

Her love for Connemara has influenced much of her landscape photography; in works such as ‘The Whistle Blowing’ which was published in 2015. This work follows the path of the old Galway – Clifden Railway line. A selection of photographs from this railway series was purchased by the O.P.W. and the Revenue Commissioners.

Lorraine has exhibited at Tulca Festival of Visual Arts, Safehouse Belfast, Clifden Arts Festival, The Galway City Museum, Linenhall Arts Centre, Dunamaise Arts Centre, Múiscailte, The Railway Record Society, Heuston, Tar éis na Feile Bríde and at R.H.A. Dublin.