Michael Croghan
I am a documentary photographer, working to highlight contemporary social issues in Ireland. My focus is usually on in-between spaces in a broad range of cultural contexts.
instagram.com/michael_croghan_photographer
www.michaelcroghanphotography.com
Unsettled
Unsettled is a set of documents of quiet, abstracted fragments of the familiar and the everyday. Taken over an eight-year period, they represent time, place, and the fleeting nature of life that is ever-changing. These photographs evoke past memories of the familiar, and as fragments, make people more consciously aware of the objects around them and their associations with them.
Safe Space
This project documents a local community drop-in centre in Longford Town, which serves people from all walks of life, covering a social need, and offering counselling and group therapy. The centre provides the comfort of company, offering a place where people can drop in for a chat and be supported by volunteers and professional staff. Mental health and the growing suicide rate are major crises in Ireland and across the western world.
I wanted to highlight the existence of safe spaces that cater to general and more serious health issues with this project, by creating a non-judgemental vernacular realism piece about the space and its place in the community. This project was made possible through the collaboration of the staff and all the service users, and was inspired by Martha Rosler's ‘The Bowery’ and Rineke Dijkstra ‘Beach Portraits’.