Exhibitions From A Picture

The Good Vibrations film has thus far been a showcase for actors, writers, directors, songwriters, costume designers and the rowdy punks of Ulster. The project continues to inspire, from the artwork of Julian House to the photography of Michael Donald. It was the latter’s work that I saw last Friday at the Sunflower Bar in Belfast. The exhibition was delivered in association with the Belfast Film Festival. The work involves a series of portrait shots, taken at the Ulster Hall premiere of the film last year. Terri Hooley, Brian and Liz Young, Greg Cowan, John T Davis, Petesy Burns and others.  There’s a slideshow of the images here.

Normally you see pictures of these people on the fly – playing guitars, rocking the public houses and the sinkhole venues, defiantly large and untamed. But Michael Donald, a Belfast photographer, based in London, has pursued another agenda. He requested that they be still, that they engage with the lens in a more intimate manner. Another photographer, Steve Pyke, calls this “the moment of transference”. The result is a collection of remarkable character studies. You witness the battle scars, the fading tattoos and the enduring grit. The eyes are beautifully resolute. The images are akin to those old tintypes of the American West, or the portraits that Richard Avedon made in that tradition. Another triumph.