Arthur Fields putting life in focus

IT WAS commonly said that the statue of Daniel O’Connell guarded Dublin’s O’Connell St, but that photographer Arthur Fields guarded the bridge. 

From the 1930s until he retired in 1988, Fields stood on O’Connell St Bridge, photographing passers-by. He was even there on Christmas Day. A conservative estimate puts the number of photos he took at 182,500.

No negatives exist. His wife, Doreen, developed the photos from a dark room under the stairs of their house in Raheny. They were dried on the clothesline in the garden, and later posted to the subjects.