© All copyright Miriam O'Connor
© All copyright Miriam O'Connor
© All copyright Miriam O'Connor
© All copyright Miriam O'Connor
© All copyright Miriam O'Connor
© All copyright Miriam O'Connor
© All copyright Miriam O'Connor
© All copyright Miriam O'Connor
© All copyright Miriam O'Connor
MIRIAM O’CONNOR: “TENNIS & GOLF”
«Late last year, I was diagnosed with Tennis and Golf Elbow - a painful condition brought on by strain and overuse of my elbows. With no improvement in sight I was faced with two alternatives: the first to cease using my camera for an unknown period, or alternatively, to enlist a lighter model for image making. In due course, a compact digital camera that I have had for many years was enlisted as a new medium which enabled me to continue taking photographs, and at the same time utilized as a means in which my condition might improve. While its limitations became quickly manifest, so too did the new possibilities it engendered for my practice.
The project’s main aim is to explore, challenge, and subvert traditional uses of digital compact cameras - ones that have become particularly apparent to me since I began using this model some months ago. For instance, who classically uses these cameras, why, and in what context? What are the conventional ‘subjects’ of images and how is such imagery displayed and preserved? Moreover, what ‘value’ do we attribute to imagery of this nature is also a focus for the project. The casual moments of everyday life or ‘nonevents’ are therefore afforded ample precedence in this ongoing series. For the project, I have enlisted the ‘Fuji FinePix’ compact camera ‘F20’ model described in one review, as “a lovely little camera, very easy and quick to use when out and about”».
Miriam O’ Connor was born in Cork, Ireland in 1973 and currently lives and works in Dublin. In 2007 she graduated with an honors degree in photography from Dublin Institute of Technology. Funded by the Higher Education Authority of Ireland, O’ Connor recently completed a Research Masters at the Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin. Her latest project Attention Seekers has been featured in numerous publications including Self Publish, Be Happy (UK), O.K Periodicals (Netherlands), Lenscratch (USA), aCurator (USA), Unless You Will (Australia) and many more. Attention Seekers has been exhibited in its first solo show at The Third Space Gallery as part of Belfast Photo Festival, 2011 and has recently opened at Galleri Image, Denmark on January 06th, 2012. This show runs until February 12th, 2012.
© All copyright remains with photographer Miriam O’Connor