I just saw Esafian's wonderful Gypsy photos on DeviantArt, and it reminded me I have tons of Gypsy horse fair photos taken over the last few month's, that I should upload since they've been gathering dust in a filing cabinet.
On the first Sunday of every month, Smithfield Square fills with hundreds of horses, and Gypsy traders along with legitamit farmers to do business.
Right now this traditional festival is under treat as Dublin county council is trying to outlaw such gatherings as a health hazard, yet it is one of the last few time honoured tradition's left in the city centre.
They are trying to move it, outside of the city, to a park area that can be more easyly policed. Just like they are trying to do to Moore street market, which is Dublins oldest market and tradional stall area. I think a car park is more profitable than heritage.
An establishing shot to get a sense of scale.
It's strange for tourists to see all this going on by modern apartments. It's located by the Old Jameson whiskey brewery.
Where modern and old Dublin collide.
Not just the horses but all sorts of horse related items are also for sale.
Located by the probation offices, Iike the kid hanging frame left.
The Little dog so damn dwarfed by horses.
All sorts of modes of transport.
These shoers must make a fortune they do each horse in a few minutes and get €20 a go. They go through dozens in a day.
A deal must have gone sour, either that, or he doesn't like somone 5 feet away with a 28mm lens in his face.
Long time Dublin street shooter Paddy McCabe. One of the nicest men you could ever meet. He always gives helpful advice. An Erwitt moment taking place.
There was also a Flickr meet taking place that day, needless to say I didn't play too well with them. You could spot them a mile away with there 5D's with 70-200 2.8 lens. My version of a telephoto is 50mm. One guy was shouting at me after a brief conversation, calling me a stuck up prick, as I recall. Before he stormed off with his Flickr buddys. The shit they upload can be found here. Out of 1600 photos I saw 5 half decent ones.
That cock photo reminded me of that for some reason.
Although this is apropriate for what I think of digi never touched film shooting, €25 to be flickr pro, wannabe's.
I'm sure I mentioned the Martine Franck story in a previous blog. It was probably one of those Flickr heads that took the piss out of her beat up old camera.
Lot's of old school garb.
And hand gestures.
Dogs for sale as well.
Shouldn't that dog have a muzzle?
These two dogs were fighting to bits. I don't need to say who won.
Nobody minds getting there picture taken, this guy chased after me begging to get his photo taken. Usually it's the opposite for me.
This seller has the same colour hair as his horses.
I Can't decide which image is better, this one.
Or this one. I was walking around with two cameras one colour, the other B&W.
It's crazy to see how young some of the traders are.
After I made the frame, one of them asked to see the photo, I said I can't it's film. "What you mean Mr, that's a film camera for making movies", I tried to explain to him, but he had no concept of a none digital camera. The way of the future folks.
With kids going around bareback it's like the wild west.
Always loads of Gardai about.
1/15 at f22. in Daylight.
A Garda trying to put a stop to some racing.
When's it over, as you can imagine one hell of a mess.
One hell of a of a clean up operation.
The Smell is too much for some.
If your ever in Dublin, and it's the first Sunday of the month, you could do no worse and check out the market while it's still here.
All photos taken with a Leica m6, 50mm&35mm lens. And a Nikon F3 28mm&50mm. On Kodak tri-x400, Ilford fp4+. And Fuji superia 400 colour film. No cropping or digital manipulation (except colour correct and sharpening).
I have some other rolls of this event to upload, I just need to dig up the negs and scan them.
Ahhh so this is the horse market you were telling me about. Good stuff! I'll have to make sure I can hang around for the weekend for one of my Dublin trips to catch this.
By the way I seriously love how friendly and chatty people are over there.. I got talking to a couple of people selling old coins in a market (I don't remember the name) - it was fab, and I ended up buying 6 Irish coins! Admittedly I've now forgotten what each of the animals on the old Irish coins symbolised.. -__-
Well, I might be prejudiced against that flickr group thanks to you and Chris, but I hate sepia. Hate it hate it hate it. Damn, pretentious, all too common tone. Never added a thing to a photograph.
Now, regarding *your* photos, I liked them, as always. The first one reminded me of August Sander, heh.
Thats what a blog is, a photo essay.. The pictures may not be perfect in your eyes or of others, but they are arranged well and tell a really interesting story of the whole day... We get a real feel for the whole event.
@Chris: Well thats wacky Ireland for you. I've only ever seen three people with Flickr Pro by there name that are actually Pro's. Yeah a silver or gold system would be more realistic, but I doubt they'd get half the subscriptions with all the wannabe's out there.
Maybe I was mistaken about the Dublin flickr pool, but after so much dross when you see a okay photo you think it's good.
Seamus, this is the best blog i have seen since banx did his fasion week coverage last year (altho, this years was good too) It makes me want to come to Ireland even more!
the horses asses photo with the dude bending over made me laugh. thanks.
where the fuck on earth does one see this? i've been to horse auctions. never this. thanks for sharing these and putting so much time organizing the post.
5d's and 70-200's! amazing.
i wonder how many "real pros," those making 85% of their income from shooting, are signed up as "flickr pros"?
the c*nts couldn't name it gold, sliver or bronze levels?
how about "flickr photo star"?
what was that whole martine franck bullshit about, mate?
i took one look at that flickr group and couldn't get past the digital sepia photos in the middle of the pool. didn't go any further so i'll take your word that there were a couple good photos out of the 1600 or so.
Whoa I would love to see a Gypsie fair like that. The very first one is my favorite. Oh and glad to hear you enjoyed that little nano-slice of California.
wonderful stuff mate, the shot of the three arses in a row is magnificent :D nice to see them selling horses rather than getting the ferry over here and trying to sell me a fucking generator ;)
Can you link me to what happened Martine Franck? I can find it in your recent blogs (new on uber).