Fiona Kearney explores the duality of roles at play in George Bernard Shaw’s experimental photography currently on view at IMMA.
George Bernard Shaw was a talented and committed amateur photographer. He was a member of the Royal Photographic Society and from the time he acquired his first camera in 1898 until his death in 1950, he actively sought to record the society he lived in, documenting the changing times, his literary and political circle, as well as creating more intimate studies, often self-portraits, that are revealing of his creative influences and private life. His photographic collection is currently being catalogued by the UK National Trust and the London School of Economics as a major conservation project: Man and Cameraman. This archive will eventually be available online and will no doubt be the subject of many future exhibitions as scholars and curators have the opportunity to explore various aspects of Shaw’s creative and critical work in photography.
