IA.Doyle.qxd
1/14/11
12:07 PM
Page 30
B
ill Doyle, one of Ireland’s most celebrated photographers, who recently died at 85, was an artist of another time. He was frequently compared to the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose “decisive moment” approach to photography Doyle mirrored in his mostly black-and-white shots of dayto-day life in the Irish countryside, on the Aran Islands and in the streets of Dublin. Accordingly, his photographs are spontaneous and natural. Instead of staging multiple takes or altering his images in the darkroom, Doyle found his inspiration in things as they were. He used his lightningfast reflexes to capture everything from a traditional Aran Island funeral procession, to a Dublin boy looking back in delight at a passing girl, to an old man taking a deep gulp of a pint. As CartierBresson put it: “In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject.” Born in Dublin in 1925, Doyle grew up in the Marino area and lived in the city his whole life. After attending a commercial college on St. Stephens Green, he first worked for a ship chandlers firm and then as an insurance salesman until he began earning money for his photographs.
30 IRISH AMERICA FEBRUARY / MARCH 2011