New Irish Works: Inner Field
Shane Lynam

There’s a common visual vocabulary used to represent Dublin. Whether you agree with it or not, it shapes how the city is perceived externally. The narrative, which Lynam has been trying to weave together for the past four years, with Inner Field, tries to go beyond the cliches sometimes associated with such a small city. While searching for a theme or topic he visited every corner of Dublin and tried to leave no stone unturned. The process of looking for his next body of work became the work itself. The lack of defined parameters meant that he could shoot on a more instinctual level.
At times the landscape was repetitive and boring, so my eye would focus on the banal shapes and forms sticking out on the street. I was drawn to the surrealism of what remained of the inner city. I was interested in the rhythm and rituals. I felt like a researcher or an archaeologist collecting objects and observations in the field, in order to bring them back, study and compare them with what I had collected previously. Patterns began to emerge which were then used as reference when I visited other parts of the city.
Although Inner Field may portray a fictional space, the lack of familiar landmarks does not make it any more or less true than the version of Dublin that has been cultivated in the collective psyche and reinforced by the media over the years.

Shane Lynam (b.1980) is an Irish photographer based in Dublin. He studied Politics and Economics at University College Dublin before completing an MA in Documentary Photography at Newport School of Art, University of Wales in October 2012. His graduation project, Contours, was one of Brian Dillon’s selections for Source – Graduate Photography 2012. Contours was shown as a solo show at the Alliance Française in Dublin during March 2013, it went on to be shown as part of PhotoIreland 2013’s main show. Lynam was a finalist in the Renaissance Photography prize in 2014 & 2015 and in the Photobook Melbourne Photography Prize 2015. Contours was nominated for the Prix Pictet in 2015. Fifty High Seasonswon the Gallery of Photography’s Solas Ireland Award in November 2015 and will be part of Circulations Festival in Paris in March 2016.

Selected by an international panel of 23 professionals, New Irish Works brings you a selection of 20 projects and 20 photographers representing the diverse range of practices coming from Ireland. New Irish Works 2016 is a year long project of 10 presentations and 20 publications that aims to highlight the great moment Irish Photography is experiencing.

Founded in 2009, PhotoIreland was conceived as an organisation that would stimulate a dialogue around Photography in Ireland by developing a varied array of initiatives and events with a strong participative approach.