Photography Exhibition

dublin | arts and media | press release Tuesday September 11, 2007 23:57 by richard whelan - none

Barbers and their work places

Barbers Exhibition

BARBERS
A Photographic Exhibition by Richard Whelan

The Photographic Centre Gallery
10 Camden Street Dublin
21st August 2007

[Exhibition opened by Eddie Chandler FIPF]

In Penny Lane there is a barber shaving customers; Sweeny Todd the demon barber of Fleet Street; Short back and sides; Tight on top; Split down the middle; mouse or gel; same as the last time.

For this exhibition I have selected a number of images from a larger archive of work documenting barbers and their shops. The images on display here span a period of over 15 years and feature Barbershops both in Dublin and further a field.

My own first experience of a barbershop came from a barber called Whelan in Cork Street; it was there that I had my first haircut. I recall sitting on a board resting across the arms of the chair, wrapped in a sheet while the barber pretended the trimming machine was an aeroplane zooming up the back of my neck. Back then barber shops were generally smoke filled rooms, filled with men sitting around listening to football and racing results on radios set into the wall; the barbers worked an ancient trade, the spaces they worked in were temples of manhood.

My interest in documenting barbershops first stemmed from a desire to record an increasingly hard to find uniqueness in a world of franchise boutiques. I wanted to capture this world before it vanished, replaced by unisex and chain salons. To draw attention to these places before they were swallowed up by the onward march of time, disappearing without anyone noticing what had happened. I began to visit a local shop, Doran’s in Rathmines, where I met the Doran brothers. Their shop was an archive of community memories and they themselves offered a wealth of personal recollections. It was these visits that sparked the beginning of my journey documenting the social aspects of barbershops all over the city and country.

Barbers are confidantes, psychologists, bookies and financial analysts. And while barbershops can be many things to many people, for me they are magical places and community hubs where unscripted theatre takes place uncensored.

I wish to thank all the barbers who were as generous with their time as with their stories, and their customers for being accommodating and cooperative. This Exhibition would not have been possible without them.
Thanks also to Eddie Chandler for generously opening the exhibition and to my family for their unending support.

Exhibition will be open on Saturday and Sunday 11am-5pm till 30th September