Common Courtesy
Aidan Kelly

Busy on the streets and in buildings hidden out of view, congregating in everyday places, the Japanese in all those built up colossal cities work hard and long hours to make ends meet. They have a graciousness about how they move and exist, it’s pronounced and they take time, catching your eye as a foreigner with a camera it seems like a distant dance looking to be remembered, graceful and a world away. Taken in various locations in Okayama and Tokyo, Kelly portrays the fugacious atmosphere of today’s Japan, balancing somewhere between years of tradition and a deep passion for what is to come.¹

Mainly practicing in street photography, Kelly combines a media element via text and double exposure to add a narrative that extends the idea of missing parts of a scape or atmosphere to the story. ‘Any city that has gone through changes or the loss of liberties or the basic needs that keep us all together I think can show in these moments. Hopefully it helps to remember that what we deserve will eventually come around to us and taking snapshots of the world around myself is my way of finding out my place in the process.’ – Kelly on the presence of Dublin city in his work. ²

TLP Editions are an ongoing collection of contemporary photographic projects in the form of accessible and inexpensive publications by PhotoIreland. These A5 sized booklets present a standard format throughout the series, with 36 pages each, a cover with a text block of under 140 words that introduces the project, and the title and the artist name only available on the contra cover. The project creates a node of opportunities as it allows photographers to enter the publishing arena, while facilitating access to contemporary artistic practices to the general public.³