Political 1 sheet 19 3, People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground, 2011, C-type print, 190cm x 150cm
Culture3-Sheet72-Frame3, People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground, 2011, C-type print, 190cm x 150cm
27September1996-Sheet27-Frame9, People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground, 2011, C-type print, 150cm x 190cm
April to August 1993- Sheet 2, People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground, 2011, C-type print, 150cm x 190cm
Quality Negs Book 3 Sheet 2 2, People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground, 2011, C-type print, 190cm x 150cm
1994 May 01- Sheet 25, People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground, 2011, C-type print, 190cm x 150cm
qn 12-Sheet 24, People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground, 2011, C-type print, 190cm x 150cm
96 JULY01 sheet 25 st Mary's exhibition andy McDonagh,People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground, 2011, C-type print, 190cm x 150cm
Quality Negs Book 3 Sheet 24, People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground, 2011, C-type print, 190cm x 150cm
42-Sheet 3, People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground, 2011, C-type print, 190cm x 150cm
July 1997- Sheet 1, People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground, 2011, C-type print, 190cm x 150cm
30 November 96- Sheet 30-37, People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground, 2011, C-type print, 190cm x 150cm
PEOPLE IN TROUBLE LAUGHING PUSHED TO THE GROUND
The Belfast Exposed Archive occupies a small room on the first floor at 23 Donegal Street and contains over 14,000 black-and-white contact sheets, documenting the Troubles in Northern Ireland. These are photographs taken by professional photo-journalists and ‘civilian’ photographers, chronicling protests, funerals and acts of terrorism as well as the more ordinary stuff of life: drinking tea; kissing girls; watching trains.
The marks on the surface of the contact strips – across the image itself – allude to the presence of many visitors. These include successive archivists, who have ordered, catalogued and re-catalogued this jumble of images. For many years the archive was also made available to members of the public, and sometimes they would deface their own image with a marker pen, ink or scissors. So, in addition to the marks made by generations of archivists, photo editors, legal aides and activists, the traces of these very personal obliterations are also visible. They are the gestures of those who wished to remain anonymous.
We would like to acknowledge and thank the original photographers Mervyn Smyth, Sean Mc Kernan, Gerry Casey, Seamus Loughran and all other contributing photographers to Belfast Exposed’s archive.