REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE AIB PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND AWARDS 2006
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE AIB PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND AWARDS 2006 CEREMONY CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL
Tá gliondar orm bheith anseo libh inniu ag an ócáid speisialta seo.
Good evening everybody and thank you for the invitation to be here to celebrate the best of Ireland’s press photography – all those descriptive stories told in pictures, those moments, people and places observed and recorded in a way that endows them with a significance that words might struggle to capture as brilliantly.
Honoré Daumier, the 19th-century French artist, once said that photography describes everything and explains nothing. Sometimes there is just no need to explain for the power of the image allows the intelligent viewer to figure things out for him or herself. Images of war, disease, disasters, poverty, homelessness, of winning or losing, the joy of a wedding, the sadness of a death can capture the most complex realities with the stunning simplicity that is only achievable by the technically talented. Sometimes though the marriage between picture and text gives the reader the very best of both worlds.
Out of the millions of photographs taken of everything imaginable, what is it that makes a photograph an award-winning image? It may be the courage it took to be in that place or the passion for that sport or it may be the picture’s innate humanity, its honesty, its empathy. It may be the risk involved in its publication, the surprise, the anger, the challenge, the pride, the beautiful memory – no two of the best will have the same bit of magic that lifted them from the standard to the exceptional but they will each have something wonderfully absorbing about them, something that won’t be satisfied by a casual glance.
I imagine it is every photojournalist’s dream and ambition to have his or her pictures make that kind of impact. I imagine too that, in the highly competitive environment in which you work, it is far from easy to be the one who gets the moment or the mood so absolutely and outstandingly right. All the more credit, therefore, to those whose work is rewarded tonight, for behind each picture is a personal story of professionalism and patience of preparation and perception, along with talent, flair and a little luck.
I am regularly in the company of press photographers and I know how important their presence is to organizers of events all over the country. Whether it is a community celebrating the opening of a new center for the intellectually disabled or apartments for the homeless or a school’s birthday – whatever the myriad of expressions of Ireland’s rich community life, its bright side and its dark side, it is so important to people and encouraging to them that its imprint is captured on camera. This is a chance for me to say thank you on behalf of all those people whose quiet, unselfish work or silent decency might go unremarked but for your presence. It is also a chance for me to thank you personally for the friendliness and courtesy you have extended to me these past nine years.
Along with the thanks, I offer my admiration and congratulations for the prize-winning photographs are always dazzling. There is education and entertainment, wit and wisdom, satire and sympathy, record and regard – each distilled into an exceptional image which establishes the winners as artists as well as skilled artisans.
Congratulations again and thank you.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.