Revisiting the legendary street photographer who became the man on the bridge

A new book celebrates more of the work of legendary street photographer Arthur Fields, the man who took photos of passers-by on O’Connell Bridge for five decades. Ailin Quinlan meets some the people he captured on camera.

Arthur Fields stood on O’Connell Bridge in Dublin nearly every day from the 1930s until 1988, taking some 182,500 photos of passers-by; family excursions, newlyweds, dating couples, match-goers, cyclists up from the country and even the occasional celebrity.

Decades before the era of the family camera and the advent of the smartphone, this dogged street photographer not only captured priceless memories for his subjects, but spent his days recording a steadily changing cityscape, documenting the evolving fashions, social habits and youth culture of a changing Ireland.