Special Events 2014

The Gallery of Photography does more than showcase photography exhibitions here in Dublin. We are also a venue for photographers’ book launches. We have even travelled abroad to collaborate with different galleries and photography exhibitions.

Photographer Kate Nolan with her book ‘Neither’

Photographer Kate Nolan speaking on her book ‘Neither’

Kate Nolan Book Launch - ‘Neither’

‘Neither’ is a photographic exploration of the hearts, dreams and fears of young women in Kaliningrad – a tiny and isolated Russian oblast on the Baltic Sea. Formerly part of East Prussia, Kaliningrad only became part of Russia after the Second World War. During the Cold War it closed its borders, and with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was severed from the mainland. An exclave of Russia and an enclave of the EU, Kaliningrad is left in the fragile position of being neither a part of ‘Big Russia’ nor truly a part of Europe.

I found that this fragility was countered by the women who I met in Kaliningrad – strong, independent women who are seeking to define their identity in the first post-Soviet generation of this ‘island’ of Russia within Europe. These women generously opened up their homes and their minds to me, guided me through the stories and lives of their region, and helped me better understand the links between place, identity and history. Neither explores the lives of these young women, caught between their strong Russian roots and the new Europe,as they search out their place between these two worlds.

This self-published photobook, designed by internationally-renowned Dutch designer SYB, interweaves my images with the words – both historical and contemporary – of the women of Kaliningrad. Neither opens with a booklet of diary entries from the women I spent time with, and closes with a booklet of eyewitness accounts of women as they first arrived from 'Big Russia' in 1945. Between these booklets, my images of the women and their region are accompanied by a handwritten account of a woman’s life in contemporary Kaliningrad. In juxtaposing these texts of past and present with my images, Neither seeks not to answer any questions, but rather to give voice to the experiences of the women of Kaliningrad.

Kate Nolan is an Irish photographer specialising in extended photographic stories that examine the human condition. Her practice involves working closely with her subjects over time and then illustrating their circumstances through images and text. Neither, Kates long-term work exploring the lives of women in Kaliningrad, Russia won the Alliance Française Photography Award 2013, was awarded 3rd place in PhotoIreland Festival 2014 Portfolio Reviews and has been exhibited in Dublin, London, Cardiff, Minneapolis and Russia. Since 2013 she has worked on (its kind of like) telephone, a collaborative project between Irish and American female artists, which was exhibited at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists in Philadelphia.

José Luís Neves is a doctoral researcher at the University of Ulster studying under the supervision of Professor Paul Seawright, Donovan Wylie and Professor Martin Parr. His main areas of research include the history and historiography of the photobook, photobook and materiality, visual narrative and artist’s book history and theory. His current research work focuses on understanding the historical and critical development of the photobook and the intersections between the latter form and the artist’s book.

“Kate Nolan recently sent us her project Neither, an exploration into the hearts of young women in Kaliningrad. As both a Russian and UN enclave, Kaliningrad is in a uniquely fragile position wedged between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea; no longer physically connected to Russia nor part of Europe. Sensitively told, Neither tells the story of women living in this region, caught in a post-Soviet landscape with conflicting cultural identities.”

— Emily Graham, Contact Editions