Jim Higgins on the move
Praise Mail for James Higgins’s NORTH & SOUTH IRELAND Photographs
January 2022
Hi Jim,
Today happens to be my birthday. I'm not fishing for happy birthday wishes but instead I want you to know that my sweetie, Sheila, as an early birthday gift, last night, prior to the blizzard today, gave me a copy of Before Good Friday and the Celtic Tiger. I spent this morning, with a very good cup of hot coffee, reading this beautifully produced book by Paul and Rosemary's Loom Press and lingering over every one of your photographs. They are exquisite! Not only impressive technically and compositionally, but remarkably poignant. And a brilliant work of social documentary.
I also think that Stephen O'Connor's introductory essay was masterful in introducing the reader to you and your approach in documenting with a camera the people, places, and history you encountered, or perhaps more accurately sought out, in your travels South and North. I've read a number of these kind of pieces introducing photographers and their work. O'Connor's is among the best!
Congratulations on such a wonderful book. It truly does justice to your work!
Best to you.
Gray Fitzsimons
p.s.
I don't seem to have Paul's email. If you correspond with him, please let him know how much I enjoy this book.
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Here is a recent email from Malachy Daly, the guy with the spiked hair on Page 70
Hi James, the parcel arrived yesterday. Thank you so much. The book is brilliant. The book is a great piece of Irish social history showing working class people in a moment of their daily lives. Effectively, it's a celebration of Ireland's rich social culture, away from the picture postcards and the leprechauns. In one frame, you've two bridge workers who were working on the Foyle Bridge. I go over that bridge twice a day. We forget the hard work it took to build the bridge and the life that was lost. You give the workers a face. Ireland has changed so much over the last forty years.
In the quote under my picture, I pay homage to my buddy Stevie McCartney. He has since died. Seeing my quote brought a smile to my face. I'll be giving a copy of your book to his brother, who was also a punk.
Are you doing a book launch in the US? If so, please forward me a couple of pictures.
Please keep me informed about your work. If you need me to do anything on this side, just say. Maybe, the next time I'm on the East Coast, we could meet up for coffee.
Talk soon and thank you again for the copies,
Malachy Daly