Photography exhibition pays tribute to late Macroom photographer Con Kelleher
An exhibition of work by the late Con Kelleher opens in Baile Mhúirne.
Con Kelleher, an artist “inspired by the view from the window of his house”, by the Gearagh and the Toon Valley, never chose to hold an exhibition of his photography in Dublin.
His work nonetheless reached the capital, travelling the country and the world on album covers, in frames, and even on An Post stamps.
Photographs by the unassuming Macroom native, who died last January, aged 59, graced the covers of albums by artists including Lúnasa, John Spillane, Sharon Shannon, Jim Murray and the late Séamus Begley. Indeed, it was a portrait of Begley that saw Kelleher’s work drop through letterboxes throughout Ireland in 2024 as one of four stamps in An Post’s ‘Iconic Irish Voices’ collection, also displayed at Dublin’s GPO.
Photographing musicians, singers, and other artists became central to Kelleher’s work during a long-term residency at Baile Mhúirne’s Ionad Cultúrtha, which began in 2006 after he documented a performance installation, Idir.
The residency, says his daughter Liadh, started by “very happy accident” and allowed Kelleher to combine his twin passions of photography and music.
Self-taught, he first tried his hand at photography in 1988 as a means of documenting the leatherwork by which he made his living.
“But once he picked up a camera, he knew that was something that was for him,” says Liadh. “As he got more into taking photographs, he started taking family photos and landscapes around Macroom town. There’s an awful lot of people in Macroom that have photographs of the castle arch that my dad has taken.
"He photographed communions and weddings and on the side he was taking photographs of the landscape around him. That was what he felt naturally drawn to and he felt very visually inspired by the natural world.
“He made some really beautiful images of the Gearagh over his career, one of which is featured on the cover of a Lúnasa album,” adds Liadh, who followed her father into photography.
“He was also really inspired by the view from the window of his house. He lived in Johnstown, Kilmichael, and loved the Toon Valley.”
Kelleher enjoyed experimenting with the camera, she says. “He loved a good forest but he also loved seeking out abandoned cottages and photographing the windows of those places. He made a huge body of work based around windows.”
Operating initially from a shop on Macroom’s Sleaveen Road, he set up a studio and framing workshop at Bealick Mill. “He framed all of his work but he also framed the work of a lot of artists,” says Liadh. “He was multitalented. He left school at a relatively young age and was self-taught at everything he did.”
Kelleher had framed work by Bernadette Ní Choitir, one of the artists involved in the Idir installation, and it was his decision to create portraits of Ní Choitir and her fellow artists that prompted then Ionad Cultúrtha manager Bríd Cranitch to offer him a one-year residence at the Gaeltacht cultural centre. “Then it rolled into two years, three years, and he became the photographer in residence permanently,” explains Liadh.
“That created other opportunities for him as well and he photographed at the Baltimore Fiddle Fair over a number of years, the Masters of Tradition [Bantry], and Willie Clancy Festival in Miltown Malbay.
“He really got around with his photographing of musicians and as much as he liked the job, he also grew really fond of the music.”
A bass player across multiple genres, Kelleher joined fellow visual artists saxophonist Jonny Pumfrey and jazz drummer John Philip Murray as members of SoundOut, with whom Kelleher once performed for the opening of an exhibition featuring his own photography.
“His work never made it to Dublin, but I’m sure that was by his own design,” says Liadh, whose father’s landscape and abstract photography featured widely in solo and group exhibitions, with portraits from his early years at the Ionad Cultúrtha collected into a book, .
His portrait subjects ranged from Matt Molloy and Martin Hayes to Brendan Gleeson and Jeremy Irons, also serving as a lasting tribute to artists including Séamus Creagh, Arty McGlynn, Jimmy Doyle, Dennis Cahill, and Shane MacGowan, all since having passed away.
A year since Kelleher’s own premature death, following a short illness, the Ionad Cultúrtha is the venue for a retrospective exhibition of his life’s photographic work, opening this week.
Liadh said she and her sisters Kristina and Molly hope to create an accessible archive of their father’s photography and “would really like for his legacy to live on”.
Liadh, who at 13 was given her first camera by her father, says she has been “hooked” on photography ever since. She marked her father’s birthday last month by using his camera to create a still-life image of a piece of rust he often photographed.
“He took inspiration from the weirdest and most wonderful things — he had an eye for that,” says Liadh. “He was unique; highly skilled at anything he put his mind to. I don’t think I’ll ever meet anyone quite like him.”
- Tóg go Bog É, an exhibition of Con Kelleher’s photography, opens at Ionad Cultúrtha an Dochtúir Ó Loingsigh, Baile Mhúirne, Co Cork, on January 30, 6.30pm
