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USING TECHNIQUES INVENTED hundreds of years ago, a photographer is spending at least five years travelling around Ireland and the UK to capture haunting images of lifeboats and their volunteers on glass plates.
Jack Lowe from Newcastle upon Tyne has already captured 88 of the 231 Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) stations in the UK with Victorian processes, and is now in Ireland, where he captured his first station in Dunmore East on Wednesday.
He’ll travel around the country, including to Tramore, Kinsale and Castletownbere, and will finish in Valentia, Co Kerry on 30 September – his 99th lifeboat station.
The trip is his first to Ireland, and he said he was excited to see the country’s “stunning coastline”.
I’d been told there’s a welcome like no other from the Irish and I’m already experiencing it after just two days.
Victorian methods
Lowe aims to capture every station in the RNLI’s network, and he’s expected to reach the midpoint of the project in 2018.
He’s travelling in a decommissioned NHS ambulance bought online that has been converted into a mobile darkroom, where his photos, captured on a camera made in 1905, can be developed.
He uses a process called wet plate collodion, which captures the images on glass.
The technique was developed in the 1850s, around the time that the the RNLI was incorporated under Royal Charter.
The lifeboat crew members can step into the ambulance to watch the portraits appear on the glass, something Lowe says they often find moving.
Because the process takes so much more time than digital photography, Lowe spends at least 24 hours in each station. He’ll have made a connection with the crew before the photo’s taken, making the process of being photographed more engaging and relaxing.
But it’s the rare technique itself that’s responsible for most of the emotion. The crew is invited into the ambulance and can watch the photo slowly develop, seeing themselves in a way they’ve never seen before, and they might associate only with their own ancestors.
Lowe says he’s been met with tears and hugs after the process:
It reveals who the person really is. It lets the soul shine through. Some of them are moved to tears.
Passion
Lowe grew up around ships thanks to his father, and is an avid lifeboat supporter, he explains:
My Dad is an experienced seafarer and introduced me to the wonders of lifeboats – these incredible, powerful pieces of kit designed for heroic, lifesaving missions on stormy seas.
With his love of photography, he says that he is now “following my heart and uniting the two passions”.
The word photography means drawing with light and that is how I think about it still. I adore photography in this very raw, basic form — light falling on chemicals. It really is magical – the final image is always a surprise, even to me
It’s the physical nature of the process that led him to use the Victorian techniques. Not only does it remind him of his childhood, when he built his own darkroom and worked with physical photographs, but it makes the photos themselves more accessible: “In 50 years time you won’t need software to see them. You’ll just need your eyes.”
The project began in 2015, but planning started two years earlier.
There’s a small global community of people interested in using these old techniques. Everyone works in their own way – and you’re always learning as you go along.
My dream is to have a national collection that shows the legacy of these volunteers.
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Irish Language Act promised since 2006 by the British Government. The DUP won’t budge on it, and the UK government need to act unilaterally. DUP – British when it suits them, “Ulstermen” when it doesn’t.
How can Wales and Scotland get language legislation, but the north can’t? If the DUP want to represent “British values”, then they should take heed from Britain where language legislation for indigenous languages like Welsh and Gaidhlig exists.
@Seán Ó Briain: most people I know, South and North don’t really care much for this kind of thing. Just political chess playing and grand standing
@Nigel o’Neill: ok, thanks. Maybe you should meet new people.
@John kane: and you live where John?
@Nigel o’Neill:Beats me anyone that is standing up for a language that has its semi conscious face in the water. Political grandstanding, no substance.
@Nigel o’Neill: That’s cool, but this isn’t about “people” you “know”. It’s about a promise by the British government to create an Irish language act as part of a power-sharing agreement and failing to deliver on it.
It’s about equality for Irish language speakers and not treating them as second class citizens when compared to Scottish Gaelic or Welsh speakers.
It’s about protecting the indigenous language of this island, irrespective of whether you personally care about it. There is a vibrant Irish language community in the north, 35 gaelscoileanna in the north, and multiple Irish language community centres.
What’s the point of Britain making agreements if they won’t uphold the promises made in order for them to be agreed?
@Seán Ó Briain: promises? Don’t matter a damm to Boris.
And we are supposed to give up our flag, national anthem etc for these lot in the event of a united Ireland?
@Munster1: If you think for one minute the the tricolour & anthem is all you will be giving up the you are in for a rude awakening my friend.
@Munster1: they’re not all of NI and in answer to the question, yes, yes we will.
@Justin Gillespie: Yes Munster 1 , you are going to have to give up Partition too, the root of all our problems for past 100 years! and that might even upset some like Justin who never suffered a day by partition because he is alright jack and couldnt give a hoot how Partition hurt others.
Justin suffers with the same narrow ailment that many unionists have – called ‘I hold what I have’. not an inch!
@Justin Gillespie: I really don’t know where you’re going with that. The overwhelming majority won’t be acceding to anything like you’re implying. After all, Northern Ireland joining Ireland will require a majority in Ireland in favour. That won’t happen if there’s any commonwealth nonsense or any kind of dual flag. It will be a United, sovereign Ireland – nothing else will pass. Sovereign nation (86% of island) > former statelet of U.K. , non – sovereign (14% of island). Never going to be a marriage of equals.
Just what do you think we’ll also have to give up?
@Justin Gillespie: lol the triclolour represents the Orange / Protestant tradition on the island. Perhaps you just hadn’t noticed that and prefer to speculate absolute codswallop
@Angela McCarthy: the root of most of our problems for the past 100 years and more so in recent years lies within Leinster House, if you hadn’t noticed
@LiamMac2018: someone speaking from an educated and sensible standpoint, thank crunchie
Someone has got to stand up to this not an inch mentality from the DUP.
The DUP despise everything Irish, language included.SF need to stand their ground on the irish language act, native languages are protected UK.
SF should realise that what the language needs is people speaking it public ie in the supermarket and on public transport. They should take the language out of the control of the academics of “ Conra” obsessed with grammar etc
@Richard Russell: Like you do every day Richard? I think you should realise this is much bigger that an SF matter, or a nationalist matter. There are now Gaelscoil’s in loyalist East Belfast. Only a language act will protect that developing situation.
Time for an election. If it is brought on by the premature ending of the Executive it will be a plague on sf and DUP. On sf for not nominating over an act that would be put in place when pandemic is over and on the DUP for allowing them have a contrived excuse to pull the plug. Would be great to see the more moderates do well in the next elections in Northern Ireland such as Alliance and SDLP.
Sinn fein rattling the cage.between now and the next ten months they are going for elections in the north.the unionist vote is in smithereens.first minister will be Michelle o Neill and it will be easily passed then.so sinn fein are just playing a waiting game here.intresting times ahead over next few years in the north
And we are supposed to give up our flag, national anthem etc for these lot in the event of a united Ireland? What a load of nonsense
@Munster1: I honestly don’t believe that the DUPs politicians are truly representative of the vast majority of people who come from loyalist/unionist tradition communities. The vast majority of those people are progressive.
@#FreePalestine: well they are the most popular unionist party
Gowon home
Ah, but this allows a “finely balanced” dig at both, since the DUP didn’t support the GFA that gave rise to devolution in the first place, and Sinn Féin haven taken their seats at Westminster that’d allow them to help pass this language legislation over there.
@Mick Tobin: No it wouldn’t. Do you not know how the English parliament works?
@Mick Tobin: “Sinn Féin haven taken their seats at Westminster that’d allow them to help pass this language legislation over there.”
That’s false. Language is a devolved matter, there wouldn’t be a vote on it in Westminster. And since the DUP will never implement it in a devolved manner, it’s up to the UK government to act and implement one.
One problem with a United Ireland is the additional cost of supplying DUP members, voters and their terrorist chums with either cushioned pavements or gloves to prevent knuckle damage as they walk about our beautiful country.
Most of the people in the north are English so why would they won’t a foreign language imposed on them? We don’t even speak Irish in the south, if the shinners won’t to speak Irish so they should every day, every meeting they attend let them! There’s trouble brewing up North for July 12 .
@Heisen berg1: wrong on many counts. None of them are English. Some are Irish, some identify as British.
@Heisen berg1: People in the north of Ireland are Irish,think you will find most English live in England not Ireland.
@Heisen berg1: The English language was imposed on the Irish. There was a time when it was illegal to speak Irish. Nobody is trying to make people learn or speak it who don’t wish too, but for those who do want to learn and speak then there should be opportunity
Ulster has been saying No since day one, to hell with them, offer them NADA Leo
@Charles Coughlan: only part of Ulster say no.
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