On Leaving

On Leaving

Documentary

In 2010 David Monahan invited people emigrating from Dublin to participate in his Leaving Dublin project. Its success in articulating the feelings of the everyday losses and gains associated with emigration has led to the work being locally and internationally recognised. It is a significant artistic contribution to the conversation around the current wave of emigration from Ireland.

While shooting the series, Monahan developed relationships with his sitters which led him to further investigate the places they had left behind and the places they now inhabit. This investigation comes together now for the first time in book form under the title of On Leaving.

On Leaving features over 150 photographs in 3 series – Empty Spaces: Desolate dawn landscapes of locations sacred to the participants of the works; Leaving Dublin: a series of highly stylised night time portraits of single people, couples and families on the cusp of a major life changing move; and Visitation: a series of photographs made during visits to participants in their new homes.

David Monahan

Self ( Small World Press)

2014

Casebound, cloth-covered, 340 x 245mm, 170gsm paper

34x 24.x 2.6 cm

304

156 photographs, 111 in full colour

1500

Dublin Ireland

Niall Mc Cormack

D M

Nicholson Bass, Belfast

978-0-9569493-3-2

davidmonahan.eu

https://davidmonahan.eu/work/on-leaving

onleaving.com

https://photomonitor.co.uk/book/15434/

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/generation-emigration/before-and-after-emigrant-journeys-captured-in-photo-book-1.2031167

https://www.irishartsreview.com/visual-notes-from-the-recession-time-ireland-2008-2013-on-leaving/