Robert L. Chapman’s Ireland: Photographs from the Chapman Collection 1907-1957

The Chapman Collection is a unique collection of photographs spanning the half-century from 1907 to 1957 that offers a glimpse of a bygone age in Ireland. Robert L. Chapman (1891-1965), a keen photographer and cyclist, began taking photographs at the age of sixteen. Most likely self-taught, he was skilled with the camera and had an instinctive eye for capturing beauty in a single shot. As Chapman cycled the Irish countryside, he photographed a range of subjects from boats and trains to landscapes and buildings, as well as his family, friends and fellow cyclists. This never-before-published selection of his extraordinary photographs also includes historic events such as the burning of Dublin’s Custom House. Chapman’s collection of photographs is enhanced by his meticulous catalogue: each photograph has a unique reference number with information on the time, date and technical detail. These remarkable photographs, complemented by his journal and diary entries - at turns descriptive and witty - are drawn from an archive of around 3,000 pictures.