Daragh Soden's Young Dubliners

 Next up from the Documentary Photography Course at the University of South Wales (formerly known as Newport) is work by Daragh Soden. Daragh is a multi-talented photographer from Dublin. These images are from his series, Young Dubliners, but he also makes more conceptual work that questions the role of the photographer and the assumptions of documentary.

Young Dubliners already has a life of its own; it will be shown in Dublin later in the year as part of a wider project on Irish youth, and Daragh is working on how to integrate text and image through pieces of his fictional writing based on his own experiences growing up in the city.

This is what he says about the work.

"Young Dubliners is a celebration of the unique character of Dublin's youth, the place where I grew up. During a time of time austerity, the young people who would inherit the consequences of actions taken by the powers that be are championed in empowering portraits."

"It's one of the things about adolescence, everyone goes through it. Yet, it's different for everyone. Everyone is dealt a unique set of problems and challenges, some much more so than others."

"The young Dubliners in the pictures are all united in their youth, but are divided in Dublin. Around the figure in the foreground, the extent of social division in Dublin is apparent."

 A man was cutting the grass when we ran down the big hill to the chipper at lunch time. When we got to the road the sweet smell of the grass changed to tarmac. Dylan’s da was there, raking the hot black stuff.

-Is that your da Dylan?

-Yeah, he said looking down at the ground.

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Molly Kempster and the Marginalisation of Women in Agriculture

all pictures by Molly Kempster

So I gave my last lecture in Room H8c in Caerleon a couple of days ago and yesterday I gave my last tutorials to third years there before the world's oldest Documentary Photography Course completes its move to Cardiff.  And so, as we head towards the end of year shows, it gets me a little bit sentimental.

After giving fifty odd lectures to these third years in the previous two years, the same number of seminars and numerous tutorials, it is a pleasure to see them write about their work and talk about their work and make their work (which I rarely get to see because I teach history and theory) in a way that goes beyond the content they have been given.

It's the idea that they have gone from having images, theories, ideas and histories put into their world to becoming people who are creating their own worlds. So hearing them talk is like receiving something back from their world - like getting a lecture, a seminar, a tutorial in return, somethng that isn't just theoretical in a distant way or image-based in a cold way, but something that connects back to the real world and examines how it has been shaped and understood over the years.

I've heard about the history of soil and how it has been mapped and shaped by the politics of land use, I've heard about Greek mythology and a photographer's personal journey to the depths of hell, about somebody who has learnt to live on the land, to fish and hunt, about the link between the heart and the land, about the body and ritual, and then some more.

In keeping with this, the next few posts will feature a series of works that are just coming to fruition for the end of year show. All these are from Documentary Photography course at USW and you can follow them at

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First up is Molly Kempster. 'Blue Bib and Braces' portrays women working in agriculture in the UK. What I find most fascinating about the project, which is a straightforward documentary, is the way it links in to the history of women in agriculture, and the way they have been marginalised and written out of visual and social history since the dawn of the British agrarian revolution. Nothing happens by accident and visual representation counts. This is what Molly says about the project (which is still ongoing).

‘Blue Bib and Braces’ is a photographic project that represents a number of extraordinary women from the south of England, who continue to defy the gender stereotype and myth that surrounds the farming industry by actively participating in job roles within agriculture, alike those of men. The existence of these women is presented through a series of uniform portraits in order to evoke the feeling of hardship and emotion that accompanies these job titles. Women have, and will continue to be the ‘backbone’ of the agrarian industry.

(and if you want to study on the Documentary Photography course, remember it's called  Documentary Photography, not anything else. There's a reason I say this. You'd be surprised!)