Abandoned Mansions- an exhibition of photographs by Tarquin Blake

Tarquin Blake’s Abandoned Mansions of Ireland, a photographic project spanning three years of research and documentation, will be on display in the James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway from 16 May to 24 June. The exhibition contains more than 40 images of the lost estate houses of Ireland.

Blake documents the end of the landed aristocracy in Ireland and the demise of their country mansion houses. His beautiful, haunting images of crumbling ruins convey an indefinable beauty in the decay – in the abandonment. The images are accompanied by history and folklore, telling of troubled times and private hardship. The exhibition also features two audio visual presentations.

Also on display will be items from the James Hardiman Library’s landed estates collections.

In 2010, Collins Press published a book of Tarquin Blake’s photographs – Abandoned Mansions of Ireland.

More photographs can be viewed on his website: www.AbandonedIreland.com