Exhibition

VIP Opening: Thursday 16 June 2011 / Exhibition runs daily until 26 June from 9.30am - 5.30pm
Gallery and Demonstration Space at The Ron Cooke Hub

John Minihan photographed Beckett many times in Paris and London, capturing moments that have become iconic images of twentieth-century culture. We’re pleased to announce that a selection of his beautiful photographs, focusing principally on landmark stage productions of Beckett’s work, will be exhibited at the festival.

*** Please note that all the photographs in the exhibition are available for purchase during the exhibition period. Each framed photograph will be stamped and signed by John Minihan, and the exhibiton-standard print produced from an original negative by Exhibit A Studios Dublin (Ireland's only printer member of the UK Fine Art Trade Guild). ***

About John Minihan

Distinguished photographer

John Minihan

John Minihan was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1946 and raised in Athy, County Kildare. At the age of twelve he was brought to live in London. He went on to become an apprentice photographer with the Daily Mail, before becoming the youngest-ever staff photographer for the Evening Standard at just twenty-one. For thirty years he remained in London, returning every year to his hometown of Athy to record the people and document their daily lives.

During his extraordinary career on Fleet Street, he photographed, among others, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, The Kinks, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Yves Saint Laurent, Lady Diana Spencer, and The Who. Over the years Minihan developed a close relationship with many artists and writers, including Francis Bacon, William S. Burroughs (who once referred to Minihan as "a painless photographer"), and Gilbert and George. His photographs of Beckett show a particular affinity between the two men. This friendship produced some of the most remarkable photographs ever taken of the writer, capturing moments that have become iconic images of twentieth-century culture.

Looking at the work of John Minihan one understands immediately why Samuel Beckett, that most private and publicity-shy of artists, entirely trusted him, and allowed him to become, in effect, his official photographer.

John Banville on Minihan

Minihan's many exhibitions in museums and galleries include the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro (1984); Centre George Pompidou, Paris (1986); the National Portrait Gallery, London (1987/88); the October Gallery, London (1990); the Guinness Hop Store, Dublin (1991); and a series of five exhibitions around the world beginning at the Leinster Gallery, Dublin (2006). His books include Samuel Beckett: Photographs by John Minihan (1995), Shadows from the Pale: Portrait of an Irish Town (1996), An Unweaving of Rainbows: Images of Irish Writers (1998), John Minihan’s Cork (2004), and Samuel Beckett: Centenary Shadows (2006).

He was given the freedom of Athy in 1990, and now lives in Ballydehob, West Cork, Ireland. Voices at the World’s Edge: Irish Poets on Skellig Michael, edited by Paddy Bushe and with photographs by Minihan, will be published in November 2010 by Dedalus Press.

Photographs

Links

Map and directions

Credits

Exhibition Photographs: © John Minihan