COVER TO CANVAS ARTIST OF THE DAY – Líosa McNamara, Photographer

Líosa McNamara is a professional photographer who keeps her projects personal. She has the unique gift of creating visual poetry when she captures an image. This skill really reflected the romantic nature of the library and transports the viewer to a bygone era.

Líosa speaks of her inspiration…

Can you guess what book Líosa took the titles of her photographs from?

‘The Grain of Wood I & II’, ‘In the Sails’, ‘In the Light’ and ‘On the Marshes’ 

When I was little I found it hard to make friends in person, so making friends within the pages of books I was reading was the easier option. So there began my life as a bookworm, and through that world I began to make real friends, bonding through books, recognising my kind of people through the shared experience of reading. Spotting the other kid in the class with the Famous Five under their arm. It was a gateway. As a result I love books and especially old books, more for their fragile worn pages than for their content, and so in the Library of the King’s Inns I’m like a child in a sweet shop. At first I was overwhelmed, I just wanted to look through every book and I wasn’t even thinking of how to respond to the place photographically. But then on my second visit I found inspiration in the large windows looking out over the cobbled streets of Dublin where a camera crew were filming a story, it was like that reminded me that Books are the true portals to other peoples’ minds and other lives, where we can look over the shoulder of people doing extraordinary things, learn from their experience, love their loves and cry their tears. Books allow us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. My photographs took shape through that idea, I wanted to capture the feeling of opening a book, you don’t know the story yet but you are curious, interested. They are named after lines from my favourite story, it’s been a wonderful project to marry the two major passions in my life. I’m so grateful to be included in this project, it’s such an honour and thanks to everyone involved for putting up with my multiple visits.

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