Dublin, Ireland | 1989
Croke Villas in Ballybough once stood as a tight-knit community on the north side of Dublin — a cluster of flats where neighbours knew each other’s stories and the playground was the heart of daily life. Before the blocks were demolished, I spent time photographing the children who brought energy to those concrete courtyards: kids skipping in groups, racing around on battered bicycles, and sliding down the old playground structures that had served generations. What stayed with me was their sense of freedom. In a place often spoken about in terms of hardship or regeneration plans, the photographs show something different — friendship, play, and the small rituals that bind a community together. These images are not about the buildings that have now disappeared, but about the people who animated them, and the last echoes of a neighbourhood that has changed forever.
Dublin, Ireland | 2025
Eric Luke is an award-winning Irish photographer with over 45 years’ experience, including a long career at The Irish Times. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with venues ranging from IMMA and The National Gallery of Ireland to World Press Photo Amsterdam and the United Nations in New York. He has photographed major global events — including five Olympic Games and two World Cups — and worked on assignments across Europe, the United States, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Now focused on long-term personal projects, Luke works primarily with black-and-white film, documenting everyday life in Ireland and building an archive that spans five decades. Here is his website for more of his work https://ericluke.com/
Dublin, Ireland | 1990
Older people stood along the pavement trying on second-hand shoes, lifting pairs from cardboard boxes and testing the fit right there in the street. Others bent to pick through clothes and household items spread out on the ground, looking for something useful or affordable. Children drifted between adults, stopping to watch, while neighbours paused to talk at doorways and shopfronts. Cumberland Street at that time had a lived-in feel — modest homes, a close community, and the everyday rhythm of people making the most of what was available. These moments now form a record of a Dublin that has changed almost beyond recognition.
Paris, France | 1992
In 1991, I often wandered around Beaubourg — the Centre Pompidou and the square that surrounded it. It was one of those rare places in Paris where everyone seemed to belong: street performers, sketch artists, jugglers, breakdancers, and the endless flow of people who stopped to watch. I would spend hours photographing the faces in the crowd — the laughter, curiosity, and fleeting moments between performer and spectator. It was a living theatre, open to all, and I loved its energy. Now, as Beaubourg prepares to close for five years of renovation, I think back to those afternoons with my camera and remember a Paris that felt both raw and spontaneous — a city performing for itself.
Colm Gerard Pierce
Colm Pierce is an accomplished documentary photographer. Since first picking up a camera in 1987, he’s travelled extensively throughout his home country of Ireland as well as to various more exotic locations, most notably France and Vietnam.
Over the years Colm has become known for the gritty humanity of his work—even his landscapes—and for his uncommon ability of being able to tell detailed stories without saying a word.
Colm’s work has been featured in such publications as the Guardian, the Irish Times, Elle, Le Point and Micro Hebdo. Today, he regularly posts his work, new and old, on his Facebook and Instagram pages, sells prints from his vast catalogue and runs photography workshops in his adopted home of Hanoi, Vietnam.
Journal
Micro Hebdo Magazine
Loos Prison is one of my “pushed stories”. I’d met a retired teacher who was working in the prison, where the prisoners were learning how to make webpages. I really enjoyed this part of my life in Paris.
Elle Magazine
Serge was an avid photographer too, so everything was in place for the shoot already, and it was fantastic to be able to shoot him in his own studio.
Le Point Magazine
Miyamoto is the world famous creator of Super Mario. This shoot took place in the Hotel Costes swimming pool on Rue Faubourg, Saint Honore in Paris and was a commission from Le Point Magazine.