Postcards from Ballymun...

Beautiful, sunny day. October 2010. 
Camera loaded with unusual for me material - Velvia 50, colour reversal film...
Now it's like a traveling in time... especially if Ballymun has changed so much since then.
That was a moment in time when every corner of now 'Old Ballymun' was so inspiring.

Yes, it's another blog post based purely on archival materials initially rejected. It basically must have evolved in me and I had to grow into the decision of showing it...   

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

Pieces of Ballymun in Budapest...

During one of my visits to Ballymun I photographed the last remaining back then (2013) block of flats - Joseph Plunkett Tower. I remember how impressed I was seeing this building from the inside including one of the flats.

It's gone now. 
You can have a look however at the article related to it with some photographs in-between. Just click HERE please.

Last Saturday I got a message from PH21 Gallery in Budapest stating that one of the photographs made that day was selected for their juried international exhibition 'Shadow and Light'. 
Wonderful! 
I had no chance to show my work in this part of Europe before. 

Above photograph is a part of my long term project 'Unfulfilled Dreams' related to modernist architecture in Ireland. Please click HERE to have a look at all series. 

Exhibition starts December 17, 2015 and will run until January 19, 2016.

PH21 Gallery:

H-1092 Budapest

Ráday u. 55.

Hours: Tuesday–Saturday: 2–6 p.m. and by appointment /info from gallery website/

On the Ballymun Road...

Photographing buildings for ‘Unfulfilled dreams’ project I ended up a few times in Ballymun. Usually with friend of mine Jim Leonard, great photographer. 

He also knows area and its people as nobody else. Our trips are always very productive.

There was no difference this time. 

A few days before I got a message from Jim that we have a permission to photograph Trinity Comprehensive School of Ballymun. 
Fantastic news as I always wanted to see this building from the inside. It was officially opened on March 26th 1973. 
Beautiful structure. Simple, horizontal, geometrical and very light form. 

After short meeting in Principal office we started to make photographs. A few hours of an amazing experience. Truly photogenic object. 
Here I would like to thank Ms Ann Meehan who arranged everything, Ms Frances Neary Carton, Principal and Jim of course who triggered all before it's happened. 

You can have a look at school's website to get more information about its history. Just click HERE please. Also please keep checking my FB website and Twitter where I will show few more photographs made that day.

A few technical informations:

This time I was using only Hasselblad 500c/m with Distagon 50/4 and Planar 80/2.8 lenses. Camera was loaded with Ilford Pan F Plus 50 and Ilford FP4 Plus 125 pulled to 50 films. 

Thank you!

Joseph Plunkett Tower

Saturday. Beautiful sunny morning. Ballymun. Joseph Plunkett Tower - the last one remaining...
Loaded with cameras and tripods we are going to the second floor of almost empty 15th storey structure.
I am with Jim, who brought me once again into Ballymun and got an access to the Tower. /you can have a look at my previous article related to this place to get a context...link is HERE/
We choose stairs and within no time we are in the front door of one of the three still inhabited flats. 
Doors opens...
Very bright and spacious two bedrooms, large living room with kitchen annex. Nowadays apartments usually not getting even close with size to this one built about 50 years ago. That's the fact.

Living room /fragment/

It's quite warm in there. Half century old underfloor heating still working perfectly. After a while I realized why most of the people who had to leave those flats were so dissapointed. They left behind beautiful memories but also comfortable and secure places. They were surrounded by good neighbours, people who cared, truly friendly and family-like neighbourhood which was mentioned many times by those who had to move away after decades ...

After short conversation with Lisa, owner of the flat, wonderful and very patient person, we took our equipment out of the bags and started to photograph it.
Soon this place will be gone as all original Ballymun flats...
While I was writing this text I got the message from Jim that actually only two families left out of three in Joseph Plunkett Tower...

The Tower consist of 90 flats and was named /as six other/ after the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation. It was build as the last one /1967/ and will be demolished as the last one.

Hall

On the way back we decided to stay a while within the building and record the maze of corridors and staircase on our negative films. Strong light of winter sun was illuminating everything so well... 
Surrounding emptiness and echo bouncing from concrete walls, ceiling and floor was the only strange feeling. It also emphasized mystery of that situation.

Corridor on the ground floor

  

Staircase

Just before we left, on the main gate we've met Bernie Rehill on her way back from shopping /photograph below/. Bernie, retired from Ballymun Library was mentioned third person living in the Tower. She is moving to the new place now.

...How much time left? Months? Weeks? 
Lisa will move probably soon. The same will happen with the last family we had no chance to meet.  I am convinced that these people will find themselves and happiness in new reality. The question is how long it takes...
All of it it's a part of history, disappearing part of history...is it good or bad? 
I am not the one to judge. The future will give the answer.


I would like to thank Lisa for showing us her place, Jim for all his help and companion and also Bernie for posing and great chat. Really appreciate that.


Equipment used:

Sinar F2 large format camera 4x5 with Schneider-Kreuznach Symmar-S 150mm 5.6 lens, Hasselblad 500cm with Distagon 50mm 4 and Planar 80mm 2.8 lenses. Film? Fomapan 100 4x5 exposed at ISO 64, couple of rolls of TMax 400 exposed at 3200 and 1600. 

'the wind' ...

Photographing modernism in Ireland I almost missed one very important place in history of Irish architecture, planning and urban design and history at all. 
This place I would describe as an important and interesting from sociological and also technical point of view rather than architectural itself.
Ballymun flats and its area. 
This is the place where great ideas and dreams of planers failed almost instantly...

Remaining block of flats /2013/. Photograph taken on Direct Positive Paper.

Last Sunday I had an opportunity to spend some time on the streets of Ballymun with two fantastic people who grew up there and have a wonderful memories related to the flats when this place was shining. Jim and his brother Eric. These couple of hours I spent with them opened my eyes and allowed me to perceive Ballymun from completely different perspective...not as a 'Concrete Jungle' with many internal problems but also as a place with strong community integration. 
...so many thanks to both of them!
Most of the people are happy seeing all those flats going down. There is however  also significant group of those who would rather see this place booming as it was at the time when it was build, when the future of this place was very bright....for the very short time.
This is typical example of great ideas of creating new places for overcrowded cities in post war world, especially in Europe. Ideas related directly to famous modernists and their ideology, ideas of Garden Cities.
Ballymun was the answer (one of few) for huge housing problem in Dublin/Ireland those days.




The estate was built between 1966 and 1969 by the National Building Agency which was established specifically for the task. It comprised seven 15-storey towers, nineteen 8-storey blocks, ten 4-storey walk-ups and 400 single family houses. 
I would easily call it state of the art which may sound controversially but saying that I am thinking about its technical aspect rather then quality of architecture itself.
All those large, comfortable apartments (over half flats had three bedrooms) with underfloor heating, central hot water, flush toilets and lifts brought an amazing comfort of living. And we must remember that all of it was in Ireland in times when large families (sometimes around ten people) had to live often in one room in extremely poor condition.

Why its failed then?

Back of the local shopping centre /2013/

Such places which we can see all over the Europe needs properly designed and perfectly working infrastructure and maintenance. Lack of any of these elements along with mentioned sociological problems causes degradation of society. This is what has happened over there briefly. There was not enough money to finish what planers just started so many places like promised public swimming pool, meeting places and play areas were never built. People were left alone in the middle of nowhere.
During the 80s things got even worse due to economical crisis. Huge unemployment brought problems with robberies and drugs.
 
Today Ballymun is changing along with its inhabitants who remember old flats.

Now there is just 3 block of flats left. These buildings will be demolished very soon and Ballymun will step up into the next stage of its history.
Wandering among those abandoned structures you can hear only the wind and imagine how it was over there back in 60's...70's

Ballymun flats - Building that doesn't exist anymore with Maser's mural photographed many times before... 
I took this photograph in 2010

technical info:

During this trip I was using Sinar F2 with Schenider-Kreuznach Symmar-S 150mm 5.6, Harman/Ilford Direct Positive Paper 4x5 and Ilford FP4+ 4x5.
Also there is a roll of Kodak Tmax 400 exposed through hasselblad 500cm, Planar 80/2.8 and Distagon 50/4. This film will be processed soon and I hope to show some photographs soon my FB website.
The last photograph in this post was taken with Holga 120GN + Fomapan 400.

What else was engaged? strong wind and some rain...