Readers of Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes will recall his graphic descriptions of growing up in Limerick, Ireland during the middle of the Great Depression, and through the Second World War. His writing is so clear, so image-filled that you felt you could reach out and touch the characters.
Now, courtesy of the RAPC library and the October 2015 issue of LensWork magazine, I was able to see images of the people of 1970’s Limerick in Gerry Andrews’ photo portfolio The Limerick Milk Market. They are street portraits of the highest order; no “scantily-clad young women” here. The faces may be of people battered by life, bruised by ill-fortune and freckled by the genes of generations, but they still look you in the eye.
To quote Andrews’ website, “They owned very little but money couldn’t buy what they possessed in abundance. They were people with character and principles. Honesty and integrity and a profound decency were common features in those days. They were eager and willing to share what little they had with those less fortunate than themselves. These were the Grandchildren of people born during the Famine and they knew what real hardship was.” [emphasis added… RNS]
Urban photographers and portraitists will find the work of a master here, as will pictorialists, but it is the people, always the people that he is drawn to. Even his shot of a hippopotamus in Ethiopia is really a portrait.
Gerry Andrews website displays many more of his striking photographs from around the world: www.gerryandrews.com. Copies of LensWork may be borrowed from the RAPC library at no charge.
This post was written by Rick Strong.
Disclaimer: The above picture belongs to Gerry Andrews and was extracted from his website.
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