Emma O’Brien is a graduate of The Griffith College BA in Photographic Media. Her photographic practice is concerned mainly with themes of family childhood and home. Documenting the personal and the private, domestic landscapes, rural life, small towns and neighbourhoods
Her recent work seeks to make sense of the challenges a working mother faces; While mothering a young child, balancing unpaid emotional and domestic labour with paid work, she abandoned her photographic practice. As her child grew she began to explore the role of mother as artist and redefined her practice. Turning her camera on her child she documents their everyday life. Her work recognises and amplifies the notion that a mothers lived experience is a valid area of artistic inquiry. She aims to continue exploring the changing roles and cultural expectations placed on mothers through the 20th and 21st Century in future work.
A career in Social and Community work informs her practice as she has a strong sense of ethics and works collaboratively with her subjects.
Emma is selected to represent Ireland in Europe on the Futures Talent Platform by PhotoIeland in 2022, and she is a Recipient of the Irish Arts Council Bursary Award for Visual Arts in 2022. She Also Received the Agility Award by the Irish Arts Council in 2021 and was selected As FreshEyes Talent by GUP magazine, 2021; Work published by PhotoIreland, 2021; She has work exhibited in Rotterdam, Dublin, and the UK in 2021. Selected for PhotoIreland Open call 2010; Shortlisted for Smedia Awards in 2009 .
EMAIL: eobphoto@gmail.com
Projects
2022 How to Construct a Mother (WIP)
2020 The Holding Place
2019 Immersion
2010 Home again
2010 The Bedrooms
Exhibitions
2022 Images are All we Have, PhotoIreland Festival
2022 Dispatch, Work Show Grow, The New Forest, UK
2021 HalfTone, The Library Project, Dublin
2021 FreshEyes Exhibition, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2021 FreshEyes, PhEST, See Beyond The Sea. international Festival of Photography, Monopoli, Italy.
2021 Waves of Exposure, Format International Photography Festival, Derby, UK
2011 The Bedrooms, Grey Area, PhotoIreland Festival, Gallery 53, Dublin
2010 The Bedrooms, Communicar, AM Gallery, Brighton, UK
2010 Home again, Open Call, PhotoIreland Festival, The Complex, Dublin
2010 Griffith College Graduate Show, Dublin
2009 Selected for Griffith College Creative Showcase, Dublin
Achievements
2022 Selected for Futures Photography by PhotoIreland
2022 Recipient of The Bursary Award by the Irish Arts Council
2021 Selected as a FreshEyes Talent, Emerging European Talents, GUP Magazine, Amsterdam
2021 Recipient of The Agility Award by the Irish Arts Council
2021 Presented Work at Bright Room Sessions, PhotoIreland
2021 Accepted to Participate in Professional Development Programme at PhotoIreland
2020 Awarded Professional Development Funding Grant by Irish Arts Council
2020 Work selected for MassiolationIRL Archive
2020 Work Selected for MassisolationFORMAT
2010 Selected for Open Call PhotoIreland Festival
2009 Shortlisted for Photographer of the Year, media Awards
2009 Shortlisted for News Photographer of the Year, Smedia Awards
Publications
2022 Over Journal
2022 F-Stop Magazine
2022 MassIsolation Book, Gallery of Photography, Dublin
2022 In the sun, on the moon, PHMuseum, Italy
2021 FK Magazine, Latvia
2021 DerGrief Magazine,
2021 FreshEyes Book, GUP, Amsterdam
2021 The Holding Place, TLP Edition, PhotoIreland Publication
2011 The Bedrooms feature in “Context and Narrative in Photography” Maria Short, 2011, AVA Books