| Description |
104 pages : chiefly colour portraits ; 22 x 28 cm |
| Summary |
To the Beat of the Drum comprises photographs of youthful members of Northern Ireland’s militaristic, Protestant marching bands, who McConnell carefully situates under the trippy magic of his super-chromatic, hedonistic lighting. These photographs and their mood-altering colours are compelling visual studies of youth and social identity – McConnell gives strong emphasis to how identity is subject to the variable relationships of the individual and the group. The book is accompanied by an essay by Sean O’Hagan (first published in The Observer’s New Review, 2021). |
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Much of the youth identity seen in McConnell’s previous work relates to outsider or misfit groups, which McConnell has documented with high sensibility. These include rave and dance culture, using and recovering addicts, and the nature of the allegiances formed through musical identity. In an unexpected reframing of his interests, McConnell’s attention in To the Beat of the Drum gives attention to young people’s participation in the militaristic, culturally complex, power assertions of Northern Ireland’s working class culture, in this case a Protestant one. During Northern Ireland’s ‘marching season’ thousands of Protestant parades take place, whose controversial war drums and flutes announce Protestant loyalism’s celebration of the military victory of King William of Orange over Catholic King James II in 1690. Catholics have their own strong versions of power assertion, and both Protestants and Catholics may each be seen as simultaneously an insider and an outsider group, within the context of historical group relativities on the island of Ireland. |
| Subject |
Documentary photography -- Northern Ireland
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Portrait photography -- Northern Ireland
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Protestants -- Northern Ireland -- Portraits
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Protestantism -- Social aspects -- Northern Ireland -- Pictorial works
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Youth -- Northern Ireland -- Portraits
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Marching bands -- Northern Ireland -- Pictorial works
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| SUBJECT |
Northern Ireland -- Social conditions http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001008850 -- Pictorial works
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| Author |
O'Hagan, Sean author
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| ISBN |
1739596404 |
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9781739596408 |
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