Kinsale festival to put focus on big picture

The work of press photographers will be featured at the Big Picture Festival this weekend

Sat, 21 Oct, 2023 - 17:36

Steven Heaney

The stories behind iconic photographs of Princess Diana and Samuel Beckett will feature at a photography festival in Cork this weekend.

The Big Picture Festival, organised by the Press Photographers Association of Ireland (PPAI), takes place in Kinsale from October 20 to October 22.

Among the photographers whose work will be featured at the festival is Dublin-born, West Cork-based John Minihan.

Samuel Beckett at a cafe in Paris in 1985. Picture: John Minihan

While working as a staff photographer at the Evening Standard on London’s Fleet Street in 1980, Mr Minihan captured an image of then-19-year-old Diana Spencer in the garden of the nursery where she was working at the time. The picture was the first taken by a British press photographer in the wake of the news that she had become Prince Charles’ love interest.

Mr Minihan is also the man behind the famed image of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Samuel Beckett. The photograph, taken at a cafe in Paris in 1985, is considered by many publications to be among the greatest images of the 20th century.

A woman in an IDP camp in Mogadishu. Picture: Mark Condren/Irish Independent

The work of Irish Independent photographer Mark Condren, who recently won the AIB Press Photographer award for a record sixth year, will also be featured at the festival.

The remains of victims of the Air India Flight 182 disaster in a temporary morgue in Cork. Picture: Denis Minihane

“We have an incredible line-up of speakers and activities for Big Picture 2023,” said the festival’s co-ordinator Dan Linehan.

“You don’t need to be a photographer to enjoy this festival. Anyone who enjoys strong visual stories of the world around us will find this programme worthwhile.”

Ian Bailey (brown coat, back to camera) speaking with ‘Irish Examiner’ journalist Eddie Cassidy at Dunmanus West, Co Cork, where Sophie Toscan Du Plantier was murdered. Picture: Dan Linehan

As chief photographer with the Irish Examiner, Mr Linehan will lead a festival show delving into the Irish Examiner’s picture archive, which contains a treasure trove of photographs dating back over a century.

The three-day Big Picture Festival’s events will take place at a number of locations in Kinsale, including the new Kinsale Library, the Temperance Hall, and Actons Hotel.

“Press photographers offer a critical service of factual truth-telling through images in an era of fakery and disinformation,” said PPAI president David Branigan.

“Big Picture 2023 will immerse visitors into the stories of our time told by incredibly skilled visual narrators; a visit to Kinsale is going to be a great day out.”