Photographing the invisible

Waterways Ireland is having a photographic competition for which it is

seeking contributions from the public on what they think best fulfils the theme “Waterways Heritage”.

Details here. You can win an iPad Air, which I think is a sort of pocket calculator for chaps with ponytails.

I was in two minds about whether to publicise this competition. You see, many of the bits of “heritage” I’m interested in are invisible, having vanished since the late nineteenth century. So maybe they’re not heritage at all?

But I decided that it would probably be difficult for Waterways Ireland to judge a competition in which all the photographs were of invisible objects, so I should encourage the photographing of the visible.

I was asked recently by another respectable public sector body to say, for publication, why industrial heritage was important to me. Unfortunately my response was deemed to be unusable, because it was too controversial. I’ll write more about that soon.

3 responses to “Photographing the invisible

  1. Thomas Paul Mc Cann

    I feel you should mention this onerous condition
    ” Entries will be retained in the Waterways Ireland Archive and may be used for future promotional purposes.”
    (i.e.) they are claiming the right to use all entries. I imagine you would be slightly miffed if one of your shots, and not necessarily the winning entry, was used and blasted across all the media and you didn’t receive a penny in royalties.

  2. Pingback: Photographing the invisible | Irish waterways history | Canals of Dublin – Tourism Information

  3. That is the reason I don’t enter photographic contests as that would be a standard T&C in all such competitions.

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