Photography Competition in Samhlaiocht

Hanging Out by Michael Gannon

Samhlaiocht, the leading arts organisation in Kerry, was pretty as a picture this week as it opened its doors to a new exhibition featuring the work of over 30 photographers. The exhibition is the result of an open submission photography process that Samhlaiocht has undertaken for the past number of months. More than 250 photographs were submitted for the exhibition by photographers from all over Ireland and as far away as Alaska.

"The photography competition was a huge success," said Mike Foley, Samhlaiocht competition Co-ordinator. "The quality and variety of photographs was simply astonishing. We were absolutely delighted with the work submitted and pleasantly surprised that work came in from all over Ireland and abroad. This year we had two themes – Summer Light and Winter Light and photographers really took the themes to heart."

Given the amount of work submitted, selecting the pieces for the exhibition was no easy task and Samhlaiocht enlisted some of the leading photographers in Kerry to help with the process.

"This year we were blessed with the selecting panel and are thankful to all the selectors. They did an amazing job," added Mike

Selectors were Kerry Kennelly of Kerry's Eye, Dan Muphy, who is a fine art and portrait photographer with Red Couch Studios, Michael Diggin of Irish Landscape Photography and Michael O' Meara of Custom Framing Services.

Four photographs in particular were selected for their outstanding quality. The photographs were taken by Christina Tydings, Michael Gannon, Martin Mulcahy and Simon Quinn. Photographers submitting work were asked to keep the themes in mind but a liberal interpretation of the theme and digital manipulation of the images was encouraged.

When quizzed about the selection panel, Mike said, "Well we thought it was important to get an expert on all different styles of photography. Kerry is an obvious candidate to judge photo journalism, while Michael Diggin is a wonderful Landscape photographer, Dan Murphy, on the other hand, has an eye for fine art photography and Michael O' Meara is an all-rounder that prints his own landscapes and the work of other artists."

All selected photographs were professionally mounted and framed and are currently on view in the Samhlaiocht Gallery, in the Old Presbytery, in the heart of Tralee. The Framing Prize was kindly sponsored by O' Meara Fast Framing Service in Tralee Shopping Center. The exhibition opened on Thursday evening, October 1st and runs until until October 23rd, 2009.