O.

Winston Link - Night Trick on the Norfolk and Western Railway

Mark Power - A Systems Edge - Landscapes at the Limit of Londons A-Z

Diane Cook and Len Jenshel - Our Walls, Ourselves

David Alan Harvey - Canadian Pacific Railroad

Alec Soth - Three Valleys (2013)

Michael Paul Smith - Model Town

Raymond Depardon - Voyages

Alec Soth - Sleeping by the Mississippi

First Shoot
For my first shoot I didnt really have an a firm idea but I wanted to get
back into the habit of shooting, editing and compiling a set of images. I
went out around the three miles of my home in Donegal and made some
pictures of the landscapes and the farm houses, compiling them into
sets that I felt worked together.

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_
SET 2

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Although I did like these images and aesthetically they worked quite
well, I felt I would need something more substantial to anchor a project
for the exhibition.

Second Shoot
For the next shoot I did I went to investigate a railway line in Fintown,
co Donegal. I thought that it may have been good to do a wider project
on the locations of the disused railway lines of the county. I went to this
site as it was the only original line that is still being upkept.

At first I found it difficult to find an aesthetic that worked when

photographing the lines but eventually found that shooting them with
the foreground in focus and blurring as the lines go into the distance
worked well.

Third Shoot
I went back for a second shoot at the railway line to shoot landscapes
along a bigger area and also to investigate some of the disused
carriages.

______________________________________________________________
_
SET 2

I was happy with the results of shooting the abandoned carriages and
thought they worked as individual images but thought they made the
narrative of the disused railways too literal and forthright. There are
loads of projects that deal with abandonment and ruin through images
like the ones I produced so as a result I went different route.

Fourth Shoot
For the third railway related shoot I went to the Donegal county railway
museum to photograph exact model railways of the disused lines in the
county. I attempted to make them to look like real landscapes.

I was happy with the results of the shoot and I felt that I achieved what
I set out to do. I think that representing the disused and abandoned
lines through the attempts to preserve the memory and legacy of it
works and achieves to be less literal than the pictures of the carriage
did. When put alongside the landscapes of the working lines I feel the
project comes together and get across what I was trying to portray.

ARTISTSTATEMENT

KieranMurray
1:48

TherailwaysystemincountyDonegalopenedinthe
1880sandbecameoneofthemostexpansiveinWestern
Europeduringtheearly20thcentury.Therisein
popularityofroadtransportcausedagradualdeclinein
theuseofrailwayandonthe31stDecember1959,the
systemceasedoperations

Thisprojectexploresthisdormantrailwaysystemandthe
attemptstopreserveitsmemoryandlegacy.Ihave
photographedtheonlyremainingfunctioninglineand
exacthandmadescalemodelsofthelinesthatareno
longerinuse.

Final Selection

Framing Plan
Grey Area = Mount

White Area = Photo border

PageSize
A2(23.4x16.5)
ApproxFrameSize 26x17.5

CriticalEvaluation

Overall, IwaspleasedwiththeprocessandhowthefinalpiecethatIproducedfortheshow
turned out. I feel thatalthoughtheideahasgonethroughdifferentstagesandtheemphasis
has changed slightly during that period, that the photographs on the wall visually
communicatetheconceptwell.

I think that process of having edit meetings each week helped with the creation of the
project in two regards. Firstly, it madeyouthinkaboutyourprojectandproduceimagesfor
it on a weekly basis which meant that you could refine it much more thanother projects.
Also, I thinking that discussing others people work, as wellasmy own,each weekmeant
thatyouwereconstantlyinthepracticeoflookingandanalysingphotographs.

I feel that the name that I eventually arrived atfor myproject1:48, theratioof the model
tracksize to real tracksize,was finessedenough to givethe viewer some informationbut
not be too literal. IdontparticularlylikethinkingoftitlesformyprojectsandonthisoneIleft
it right to the several days before the show as I didnt find anything suitable. I wanted to
avoid going down the route of picking one oftheendless amounts ofdodgy railway puns
butIkeptresearchingandhappywithwhatIfinishedwith.

I like to try and learn as many useful skills as Ican duringthe projects andI think thatthe
experience and skills I learned in helping to the show over the two days prior to the
exhibitionmeansthat Iwouldbe confident inhangingmyworkindepentlywhenIneedtoin
the future.Alsothe process of properly printingdigitalfileswillbesomethingthatIcannow
easilydoagainwhenIneedto.Finally,Ifeelthattheeditmeetings alongwithexperiencein
Mayo duringtheprojectallowed medeveloptheabilitytoreadanddiscussphotographsin
amuchmoreclearandconciseway.

Although I think that I executed the project well and I pleased with my finalimages,I think
that the next project I do should be a bit further outside of mycomfort zonethanthisone
was.I think thatadocumentarystyleprojectthatwouldinvolvemoreofadirectinvolvement
with people maybethetypeofprocessthatI wouldexplorenext.Myfirstyeartenpicturein
Tory Island, my colour presentation from Derry and the exhibition although different work
followthe same process ofproduction and I think a newchallenge wouldhelpmeimprove
myphotographyoverall.