Shining light on the art of darkness
Irish photographer’s exhibition of derelict places was inspired by his deceased parents
IRISH photographer Paul Scannell said the death of his parents was the impetus behind an exhibition of his work simply titled ‘Abhaile’, which opens in a London gallery this week.
Mr Scannell’s arresting images of derelict properties in Alaska, Iceland and Co. Kerry have featured in a variety of international publications and he says the message in his work is ‘even the darkest places find light’.
The 45-year-old, from Blackrock, Dublin, who is a real estate photographer by day, said the property crash here forced him to seek work in London.
‘Work sort of dried up in the photography game in Dublin and I felt London was a better bet. And I’ve been here for 17 years now.
‘I love it, I feel like I have two homes. The proximity of Dublin was very important because my two elderly parents were there.
‘When my dad passed in 2015, that’s sort of what fuelled my journey to Alaska,’ he told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
‘It was one of those things where he’d been ill for so long, it felt like a trip would ease some of it.’
The death of his mother in April 2022 also influenced his photographic journey.
‘I think the clearing of her space, which of course is an inevitable and sad thing to have to do… it got my mind back on those places and what they record of a person.
‘The little things they owned, the little things that were on mantelpieces and I think that’s what kind of jogged this body of work into existence.
‘It’s what a space records of a person, and in hindsight that’s really what I’ve been doing my whole career.’
Mr Scannell’s fascination with Alaska led him to the eastern side of the State, where he landed in the once prosperous mining town of McCarthy, which had a population of just 28 when he arrived.
Although he was meant to stay for just two weeks, he ended up living there for five months, capturing the area’s fast-disappearing mining history in a book called ‘Abandoned Alaska’.
While there, he also photographed the infamous abandoned bus which featured in the movie, Into the Wild, starring Emile Hirsch.
An artist’s residency in Iceland enabled him to further immerse himself in creating images of deserted homes and settlements.
‘When I was in Iceland, I came across this little coastal cottage, and it had been ransacked and abandoned but there was something about it. I keep going back to it,’ he recalled. ‘I went in and started to document it.’
Among the items which he found in the cottage situated along Skagastrond’s coastal road, in rural north western Iceland, was an old school atlas where the islands of Britain and Ireland were circled in red marker.
‘I couldn’t believe it, it felt like a sign. There was so much evidence of the family who had lived there, that I was able to piece together their life, and I actually got in touch with a gentleman who had actually grown up in the house and he’s in his 60s now.
‘The book belonged to him… I asked him if he wanted it back, and he said “no, keep it”.
‘His name was Hjortur and we’re actually very good friends now. He said to me: “The house was very kind to me. I love this house.”’
Speaking about leaving Ireland, he said the property crash left him ‘bankrupt and rootless’, but it ultimately sent him on a journey home.
‘The home I craved seemed all but impossible and so, for years, I wandered. These distant shacks, roofless cottages and glacier-side bunkhouses became my refuge. They weren’t mournful places, they were a record of lives lived.
‘Within these adopted walls I could examine discarded journals, trinkets and treasures. While the places in my photographs will all succumb eventually – to destruction or development, I am blessed to have met them as I did.’
‘I couldn’t believe it, it felt like a sign’
■ Abhaile opens at The Stash Gallery at Vout-o-Reenees, 30 Prescot Street, London E18BB on Thursday, February 29.