CONTACT ME
I’d love you
to get in touch
ABOUT
I have always struggled to understand how to release my creativity. With so many ideas and concepts surging through my brain it’s impossible to describe myself as any kind of specialist photographer. That bothered me deeply. But with my recent ADHD-C diagnosis and psychologically assessing my brain, I finally understand that defining my gaze is a neurotypical concept and it works against my natural instincts. There have been times of longer projects that require hyper focus, like during the Covid-19 lockdown. But my natural state is to relax into my neurodivergent view and allow surges in dopamine to trigger the creation of a photographic pastiche of the world that my brain relates to.
LOST
The Ongoing Project
I started the Lost Project in March 2022 after the utter shock of receiving a formal diagnosis of ADHD-C (ADHD-Combined meaning I am both inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive). It’s fair to say I was utterly lost. Going for regular walks locally I noticed small items left behind and that resonated with my place in the world at that time. I made a record of them on my mobile phone as I couldn’t bring myself to pick up my DSLR. Submerged in grief, I always knew I was “different” but I now realised I didn’t know myself and neither did anyone else. I’d lived for 58 years moulding my personality, behaviour and expressions of myself by watching the personalities, behaviours and expressions of everyone I’d encountered. I lived with crushing imposter syndrome, never fully reaching my potential in so many areas.
Two years on I’m in my 60th year and things have changed. I’ve learned to trust myself, my instincts, to develop my own voice, change my relationships, and most importantly, to identify and prioritise my needs and be empathetic, understanding and proud to finally be the real Laura.
I joined the life saving organisation ADHD Ireland – no diagnosis needed and you don’t need to be in Ireland to take part. After online support groups which started to rebuild my confidence, I undertook the
UMAAAP – Understanding & Managing Adult ADHD Programme
You don’t need a diagnosis to participate. The Programme was the most important gift I have ever given myself and the point at which the burdens and sorrow began to fall away. I finally started to understand my life. I no longer struggle, bend and mould an inauthentic version of myself to navigate the neurotypical world. I have the UMAAP map.
ADHD gives me the gift of oversharing and empathy in advocating. But for the sake of visitors to my website I’ll keep it concise and share these links that others may find helpful and if you want to reach out to me on this topic, please feel free to get in touch on the contact page.
RESOURCES
Lost
The Ongoing Project
Photo Museum Ireland
Previously Known As Gallery of Photography Ireland
The Covid-19 lockdowns and isolations of 2020 weren’t an entire bust. I completed a couple of projects whilst keeping to the 3km then 5km radius. The thought of mingling with people, any people, outside my home bubble, really wasn’t appealing. If anything, mental and physical introversion seemed to have become ascendant and it was a difficult dynamic to refuse when the alternatives are life threatening. In the midst of the pandemic maelstrom, there was a little glimmer from a #massisolationirl project on Instagram to which I was subconsciously contributing.
Thought processes had become floating rather than planned, a monotonous routine was the path through the mundanity of life & the subconscious Instagram actions were a means of passing the time. Randomly documenting minute moments of daily life that I would normally breeze on past without imaging. I was initially uninspired to pick up the camera, but after joining a mobile phone photography workshop hosted by Brendan Ó Sé, an award-winning Irish mobile phone photographer, I was galvanised to seek out the art that I know fills my creative well. The awareness of my work was only crystallised in hindsight when I was honoured to be contacted by the Gallery of Photography Ireland, whose name is now Photo Museum Ireland and asked to submit these four images for their permanent national archive.
GALLERY
SERIES 3
FAMILIAR PLACES 1
102 days of looking at four walls. 102 days of wondering will we ever leave home. 102 days of dreaming will I ever travel again. 102 days of fearing for family within the walls, out-with the walls, remote, overseas, their health, their lack of health, their lack of choice. Vulnerability and incapacity. A heady cocktail for madness in a world I feared, but never thought would come to be. 103 years. The antidote. Lifting the camera from a bag covered in fine dust, choosing my location carefully. Within 5km of home. In the midst of a small town, but overlooked by many of the customers. Invulnerable to the vagaries of the weather, dark corners, bright moments, and over a century of toil and memories trapped under grime, oil and grease from the honest work of fixing transportation – bicycles, motorcycles, cars, tractors, buses. Busted fingers, bangs on the head from the lift, danger lurking everywhere to the uninitiated. You visit a couple of times a month for fuel, maybe a couple of times a year to have something fixed. But how often do you take a really close look at your surroundings? I felt a renewing energy flowing as the lens sought out large and small moments. Mechanical, dependable, useful. A pocket of normal in a world of abnormal. A chance to restart the engine, in all senses. These images were first displayed on 20th July 2020 on Instagram.
SERIES 2
TikKlok Mass Isolation 36 Views is a photo essay that addresses isolation, loneliness and the slow passage of time in the time of the Covid-19 Pandemic Mass Isolation. Images taken at my home in Poulnagun, Co Clare, Ireland, have a nod to Hokusai in format, whilst the title acknowledges the TikTok social media platform’s energising influence during lockdown lethargy. Taking my everyday views and experiences at home whilst engaged in what I call “Isolation Housewifey Sh*t”, the one constant is the mortal ticking of the clock which cannot be manipulated to speed up to a point of safe resolution of our imposed isolation. Even as I continue to evade infection, it has evolved from a symbol of resentment and begrudgery to being a comforting companion as each tick marks another second of good health.
The video comprises the 36 images in the sequence as they were imagined and set to a soundtrack reminiscent of the mortal ticking of time. All images were released in an online exhibition on Instagram which commenced on 11th May 2020 during the Pandemic Lockdown. Three images were released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with the exhibition reaching its conclusion on Friday 5th June 2020 with the simultaneous release of the video and my website going live.
On Monday 8th June 2020, the Appendix to the Photo Essay was released to the online exhibition on Instagram.
SERIES 2 APPENDIX
The appendix to the essay responds to the micro dynamic in the household with the youngest child in the family, soon to become the youngest adult, escaping the suffocating block walls, Microsoft Teams’ education and the inexorable final moments of his transition from childhood to adulthood 48 days later. Absorbing the space, sound & energy of the forest environment allowed him to reflect on his lost events, opportunities, time and influences that cannot be recaptured, reimagined or re-experienced.
SERIES 1
Living in a Unesco Geopark brings its joy as well as its challenges. Photographers flock to the area to capture its unique beauty, but I felt I wanted to capture my essence of the landscape and the emotions it evokes inside me. I experimented to capture different types of landscape in one frame that spoke to me beyond the digital manipulations of unrealistic scenes which evoked an overwhelming melancholy and sense of deja vue. In response to this I began to investigate the passage of time within a scene and how that translates to what I can feel when immersed in an environment that has existed in one form or another for millennia. Time, its movement and the effect it has on light have all been and continue to be a central theme and source of exploration for my fine art photography regardless of the subject or location.
This initial journey into Intentional Camera Movement (or ICM) was envisaged as a series of diptych exploring how locations remote from each other share relevance in time and space.
