KFest Photography Exhibition by Ciara O’Donnell

KFest Photography Exhibition by Ciara O’Donnell

K-Fest is an arts festival celebrating Art & Music held in Killorglin, Co. Kerry, Ireland each June bank holiday weekend. This is the second year of the festival, which is growing in popularity and this year 120 artists will exhibit their work in various locations around the town allowing them a great networking opportunity and the forum to present their ideas to the public, some of them for the first time. All exihibitors will be also in with a chance to win the coveted Screaming Pope Prize (S.P.P). This is Ireland’s newest and most unique arts award exclusively organized as part of K-fest Music and Arts Festival.  The Screaming Pope Prize recognizes outstanding achievement, encourages the pursuit of excellence and promotes the highest standards of quality in cultural innovation, artistic exploration and excellence in the visual arts.

Mike Ahern & Neil Browne has successfully generated a dynamic gathering of artists from all mediums attracting participants and followers from all over Europe. Kfest utilizes unoccupied spaces within the town of Killorglin by re-appropriating these vacant retail outlets, domestic homes or deserted buildings as bespoke pop-up galleries. I was successful in securing a space this year and I have since developed a series of images, which were in their infancy until recently. I hope to expand this collection of images and am in the process of accessing funding to launch a solo show later this year.

Photography inspired by Gregory Crewdson and Jeff Wall

I’m really interested in the idea of stretching the parameters of photography as not simply a two-dimensional medium into a more interpretative one. My experience working as an art director in film and television has influenced my ability to compose an image within the camera but what about the reality of the composition? My training in conceptual design has influenced everything I’ve ever worked on, I can safely say. It developed the designer in me, and my practices have always developed as a result of this training. I love to explore the possibility of creating an image, which incites emotional responses, which buck conventional photography practices. My influences as a photographer include 2 of the greats Gregory Crewdson & Jeff Wall.

Photography is painting with light

I’m obsessed with light, form and storytelling. My appreciation spans all artistic media from the early Delft master painters to modern photographic geniuses like Wall & Crewdson. Crewdsons haunting images are transfixing and Wall’s technical prowess has held me spellbound for years. Photography is painting with light not unlike the early masters, who used camera obscura to accurately depict the presence of light in their compositions incidentally, and the links between them and modern narrative photography are undeniable.

Social & landscape observations and cinematic narrative influences have helped me create this series of images telling the story of this mysterious girl, all shot on location in Kerry, Ireland. I am attempting to create a series of evocative images featuring a sleepwalking girl on locations, which evoke an emotional response.

When you discover an artist whose work you love the excitement is unbelievable and since I was a kid I have felt that way about art, whether it was my first visit to the National Gallery of Ireland seeing Yeats’ work, the Sistine Chapel in Rome or the first time I found Crewdson online & immediately spent €400 on his books on Amazon.com! Crewdson’s style has developed from a portraiture base, and morphed into a narrative style I aspire to. Jeff Wall creates images in a similar way but his influences are more conceptual and began as installations. I would really love to present my images in his perfered format, as light transparencies. Maybe it will be possible for my solo exhibition later this year.

Both have inspired me to develop my own concepts for this show in KFest 2015. Some other artists I’m looking forward to seeing are Daire Lynch, painter, and Lorraine Neeson artist. As for the music and other kids activities planned…my head is in a spin! One thing is for certain we’ll have fun and meet some very interesting people. Good luck to all participating, and here’s to a great festival! Check out the festival website here. Come to the lovely town of Killorglin in one of the most scenic areas of Ireland this weekend for a jam packed fun filled weekend of Arts and Music. The programme contains lots of entertainment and creative workshops for children and their families to enjoy. Looking forward to seeing you there.

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