photo essay BOYS.
starring and created with students from Ardscoil Rís.
supporting text below.
Ireland’s education system is bizarre. At a frequency much higher than any of our neighbouring countries, Ireland opts to have a high level of same-sex schools. This is in large part due to the relationship between the schooling system and the Catholic Church, a relationship that is still strong today. The result of this system? A unique school experience that shapes the way you think, act and see the world for the rest of your life.
At age 14, I embarked on my all-boys secondary school experience. There is a particular culture that is cultivated in this environment, something that became particularly apparent after my time in the school had finished. I wanted to see how this culture operates, from both my past-pupil perspective as well as the students themselves. I had my preconceived ideas but I wanted to see how the people currently living in the system reacted to ideas of diversity, religion and education.
Speaking to teachers working in my former school, I was given a chance to work directly with 4th years in a workshop about capturing emotion. I challenged them to reflect on their experiences, feelings, emotions etc. during school and to turn them into scenes in which we could turn in photographs. Luckily, the vast majority of students were extremely engaging and open to talking about their experiences. It was fascinating to see first hand how they worked with the prompts and expressed their experience.
The workshop went on over the course of about 5 hours, and so I had the opportunity to work with a lot of different people, with an array of different experiences and ideas. Throughout the day, it was clear some student’s ideas seemed like what they thought was the ‘right answer’. This notion was further reinforced when students would refer to me as ‘sir’. It was a strange feeling, I didn’t want an authoritative relationship with the guys. I assured the students that I wasn’t a teacher and I wanted to get their genuine answers, not what they thought they would have to say. After this encouragement, I began to see more ideas that felt more like what the students actually wanted to say, and those are the images that mostly made the final cut.
There are many themes at play in the photos, all influenced by the experiences the guys had at school. The covid pandemic had a huge impact on their school life, taking up almost 2 years of their development years. The junior certificate results had come out the week we had taken the photos and so memories of academic pressure were fresh in their minds. The students expressed their thoughts and feelings toward the religious aspects so clearly ingrained into the schools character. Some of the students who weren’t white or catholic shared their experiences and how they felt being a minority in the school.
All the scenes were constructed by the students themselves, allowing them full freedom to express themselves. Intertwined are images of the school, itself being full of personality. The rooms, corridors, and spaces all equally play a part in the experience while also telling the tale of those who run the establishment. Portraits were taken of some of the students with little instruction to see how they reacted to a more traditional photo style. The students posed and stood whatever way they felt would be right, the individual personalities are given an opportunity to really stand out.
The photos have all been captured in black and white to emphasise the subject of the scene, the aspect that is most important in capturing the essence of school life and the feelings and experiences that are being conveyed. The Irish education system is often deemed as one of ‘the best’ in the world, but rarely is the real experience of living through the school life put into the limelight. Hopefully this project gives that aspect a platform to be seen.
