209 - Trish Morrissey

Much of the work of Dublin-born Irish photographer Trish Morrissey is a study of the language of photography through still and moving images, using performance and wit as tools to investigate the boundaries of photographic meaning. Although most of Trish’s work features her as the protagonist, she does not consider the photographs to be self portraits per se, though they can be read that way. She uses humour as a tool to disarm the viewer, hoping it wil then evaporate, leaving a slow burning psychologically tense afterglow. Weaving fact and fiction, Trish plunges into the heart of such issues as family experiences and national identities, feminine and masculine roles, and relationships between strangers.

Her work has been exhibited widely, including in the shows ‘Landscape, Portrait: Now and Then’ at the Hestercombe Gallery in 2021; ‘Who’s Looking at the family now?’ at the London Art Fair 2019 and in the solo show ‘Trish Morrissey: A certain slant of light’ at the Francesca Maffeo Gallery in 2018 and most recently in 2022 he exhibition Trish Morrissey, Autofictions; Twenty Years of Photography and Film, at Serlachius Museum Gustaf, Finland.

Her work is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Fine Art, Houston, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The National Media Museum, Bradford and the Wilson Centre for Photography, London and was published in 2022 in the book Autofictions to coincide with the aforementioned exhibition in Finland.

In episode 209, Trish discusses, among other things:

• Her recent retrospective and book
• The Front project
• Her parents family album
• Reading pictures from body language
• Her collaborative project with her daughter
• The performative side of her practice
• A Certain Slant of Light
• Exploring the female experience
• Early life
• Residency in Australia
• Working with video

Referenced:

• Andy Grundberg
• Zed Nelson
• Nicholas Nixon, Brown Sisters
• Kate Best
• Mark Harriott
• Hilary Mantel
• Diane Arbus

“Everything I’ve done, when I’ve looked back on it I’ve realised is actually trying things on. It’s kind of like a way of rehearsing for the future…”

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