Interview Martin Cregg
I ‘dabbled’ in photography and it became my life.
Name: Martin Cregg
Hometown: Dublin, Ireland
Style of photography: I am pretty mutable – I change my approach to suit the concept of the chosen subject. But I have been described as having a bit of the German Tradition in my work.
Type of camera(s): I alternate between the Mamiya 7 and Mamiya RB67 they complement each other really well.
Website: www.martincreggphotography.com & www.martincreggphotography.blogspot.com
What gives you inspiration?
Inspiration? I am not sure. I think I just have an impulse to photograph. I really do not fully understand why. (If I were William Eggleston, the conversation would end there. But, I will try to elaborate with my further questions).
What are your influences?
I am pretty mutable in terms of style and approach – I change according to the subject. I never really aim at a ‘perfect’ print, or a 10-12 print essay-type project, or anything like that. I find that I tend to take on a more substantial body of work which challenges me to face the complexities of photography and the surface world.
I find at this point that I am, technically, a very limited photographer. But, I like to create work that will challenge the viewer to reconsider the act of photography itself – the act of looking and thinking about photography.
In terms of influences which can be identified through my work. I am interested in, for instance, the German Traditions of photography – from the Bechers through to Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth, etc. I am also interested in the American social landscape tradition – from Walker Evans through to Lewis Baltz, Stephan Shore, Eggleston, John Divola, etc. But, I try not to limit myself – I am constantly looking at the image world and finding amazing work almost every week through blogs, online magazines, recommendations from friends and colleagues. Further to that, I find that Irish photography over the last two decades is incredibly interesting – I am not sure whether the international audience has fully appreciated the depth of some of the work which has come from this country.
Why did you choose these photos?
The first image is one which should strike a chord with your Dutch audience, as it references the famous Van Gogh image – ‘A Pair of Boots’. This image was taken in 2008 as part of an inventory of objects around my father’s concrete workshop – where he has worked with his brother for more than fifty years. It is a very personal image, which contrasts, and symbolically brings together, the world of my work – as a photographer, artist and scholar of Art history; and my background with my father’s world of work and my time working with him there. It references a famous 1887 painting, which is often cited to refer to the pre-modern world of struggle and suffering – the everyday objects of workers labouring with the soil. The image also takes note of a famous Walker Evans image from the American depression in the 1930s – ‘Floyd Burroughs Shoes’. A copy of Evans’ image has been hanging above desk for more that three years. For me, Evans’ image represents a valuable essence of the photographic medium. And, for me, this is one image that I know will have a resonance for many generations within my own family.
This next images are from my book ‘Midlands’ (2009) which charted the construction of the Irish midlands region from the height of the economic boom in the early part of the decade, to the economic insecurities and uncertainties of recession times. The book is an extensive project which, over a five year period, documented the space that the ‘urbanization’ of rural Ireland created – factories that were built due to tax incentives, homogeneous housing estates, warehouses, Industrial estates; which, to this date, lay empty and uninhabited due to the changing economic climate. These are interesting examples of the style and approach of the Midlands project. I was interested in topographical studies, of course, but I find that the spaces I was focusing on were interesting in the context of their place in rural Ireland. I found that I was working against the archetypal representation of Irish landscape – one seems to be a ploughed field, the other a typical Irish landscape with stone walls. But, in actuality, they are new spaces – almost micro-scapes. With this in mind, the images are pretty ‘abstract’ – further and further away from showing any rural at all! Instead the rural is denied, the space depicted is un-defined, non-expressive, non-organic, non-geographic, non-place.
The Forth Image is one of the latter images from the Midlands series – a theme which I am revisiting for my new body of work – ‘Suspended State’ which deals with the recession In Ireland. The image is taken in a newly built housing estate which was ‘almost’ finished before the developers abandoned it. It has an overall sense of desolation and abandonment. The plant which drifted into the space before my eyes seemed really poignant and reflected the themes, styles and approaches which were manifest within my work at that time.
What does photography mean to you?
I started my relationship with photography about ten years ago. The Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh once said that he ‘dabbled’ in verse and it became his life. I am similar to this – I ‘dabbled’ in photography and it became my life. It is something that just makes sense to me. It has become the means of getting to know the world in a new way. I find that photography is a fascinating and often misunderstood practice – one which I am relentlessly forced to negotiate and re-negotiate. But it is also a practice which allows me to negotiate and re-negotiate every aspect of the world I know.
I feel that photography has given me a new way to comprehend life; a way of recognizing and grasping the intangible meaning in the world. There is a moment when photographing, from time to time, when there is an overriding feeling of revelation – finding a zen-like harmony with the elements of nature, the ambiguities of human life and the labors of society to organize and articulate a meaningful world. It is a difficult feeling to explain. The visible surface of the earth comes alive with ethereal sensations – full of meaning, history and contradiction. The act of photographing attempts to make these sensations tangible. It encourages and permits a quiet comprehensive musing over the most seemingly banal and ordinary of things. It offers an invitation to scrutinize, to ponder, to connect with whatever piece of life it privileges.
Photography, for me, became a way to assert and express the way I saw the world – a subjective comprehension and impression which I could never communicate or articulate with words.
Extra information:
Martin Cregg has been recently selected to participate in the International Reflexions Masterclass and as one of 6 International Photographers who will explore the Frysland region for the catalogue and exhibition ‘Foreign Eyes on Frysland’.
Photos:
Copyright reserved by Martin Cregg
