The Seán Hillen Collection: At the National Library of Ireland
Seán Hillen

In December 2011, The National Library of Ireland Photographic Archive acquired a collection of c. 600 photographs to be known as the Sean Hillen Collection. This book has been produced to mark a major exhibition of these images as part of the PhotoIreland Festival in the National Library of Ireland Photographic Archive Gallery in Temple Bar, Dublin in 2012. The collection has been described as a ‘significant addition’ to NLI’s photographic collections which include the Lawrence and Independent Newspaper collections. The photographs are black-and-white 35mm documentary images and have been acquired in the form of the negatives and associated digital scans. This is a postcard book of some of the most well known photographs from the NLI collection.
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Born in Newry in 1961, Sean studied at the Belfast College of Art. In 1982, he travelled to London to continue his studies at the London College of Printing, and then at the Slade School of Fine Art. He traveled back and forth between Ireland and England over the course of several years. He photographed scenes related to the conflict in Northern Ireland.  He later incorporated these photographs into photomontage work. In 1993, Hillen returned to Ireland. Between 1994 and 1997, he created a new body of work entitled Irelantis.  He co-designed the Omagh Bomb Memorial. ²

The National Library of Ireland collects and preserves the documentary and intellectual record of the life of Ireland.