The Moving Land

This selection of documentary photography by Billy Mundow matches monochrome images of Ireland from the 1960s to the words of Irish poets, recalling lost generations. Themes of a vanished world spool through the pages, capturing the remote and sparsely populated West of Ireland and its islands – places of breathtaking beauty and tranquillity – the midlands and Dublin’s streetscapes.

Concentrating on portraiture and personality, the work follows in the footsteps of the late Bill Doyle. Scenes depicted in The Moving Land become less familiar as time passes, but the poetry paired with each image resonates and connects the viewer with a living heritage.

Poems by Gerald Dawe, Patrick Kavanagh, Richard Murphy, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Moya Cannon, Paul Durcan, Paul Muldoon, and the photographer, take the form of a dinnseanchas and feature throughout. Like a magic lantern, these images flicker from west to east, illuminating Inishbofin, County Galway; Tory Island, County Donegal; rural Ireland; and Dublin City.