LARKIN COLLEGE PHOTOGRAPHER IN RESIDENCE 2017-2018

Artist: Mandy O’Neill            Medium: Photography

I am a Dublin based photographer, working primarily within the genres of contemporary portraiture and social documentary. 
My main interest is working with young people particularly in the context of learning environments. 
Recently I completed a three-year artist residency at a Dublin primary school, which has resulted in a number of exhibitions and a publication. During this time a large historical archive and record was produced for the school, of a particularly significant period in its existence.
Working in Larkin Community College will allow me to move through the school’s environment – beginning on school grounds and then moving into the classroom, gym, dance studio, laboratories, woodwork, art, home economics and bike maintenance rooms – in an observational capacity. 
Any observation in classrooms will be pre-arranged with teachers. I will document various events in which the children are involved. 
For the residency at Larkin Community College I would hope to observe the environment and different events and then developing a series of individual and group portrait of students. 
As this is an organic process there is room for this to grow and develop depending on what works best for everyone. 

Ethical Statement
As a photographer working within a documentary tradition I am very conscious of a history of misrepresentation of communities and this is something I actively seek to avoid. I consider it a privilege to be allowed access to other people’s lives and I am particularly aware of the sensitivities of children. My practice overall seeks to find the extraordinary in the ordinary and to represent the positivity’s within the environments in which I work.
Examples of my work can be found on my website www.mandyoneill.ie