The Bridges Project was a part of the Cork Midsummer Festival featuring artist Nicole Flanagan who collaborated with a group of 6th Class students of St Mary’s Girls National School. Cork Midsummer Festival is an annual arts and events festival that takes place in Cork City and provides art events for people of all ages.
The girls worked on decorating the bridge by Grand Parade in Cork City with flowers. The Lord Mayor, Mick Finn, accompanied by his impressive chain of office, came down to the bridge on this gorgeous day to meet the students. He was extremely interested in what they were working on, listening intently to all they had to say and complemented their hard work.
From a photographer’s perspective, it was luckily a pretty straightforward shoot. With the perfect weather on that day, the colours just came out beautifully in the photos from all that lovely sunlight but it was also my lucky day since I know from living in Cork City that that specific bridge is very susceptible to wind. This meant that I just got to enjoy being part of the group and listen in on the conversation while photographing away in my typical documentary / photo journalistic style. The result are these pretty casual photos that, nonetheless, portray this rather formal meeting quite nicely, without the need for me to boss everyone around too much, ruining their experience of the day. I’m always delighted when these type of event or promotional photos happen so organically.
Everyone was just in good spirits. On one hand, because there was a general excitement to meet the Lord Mayor but also, I must admit, because the students were happy not to be in school! Fair enough, I think we all remember that feeling of freedom we felt on school outings when we were that age.