Draw Breath

An exhibition of early twentieth century photos has just opened in the City Museum in Galway. In 1913, a Parisian banker, Albert Kahn decided that a good course of action to promote world peace would be to make use of the new technologies in colour photography and send photographers all over the world to photograph different cultures. Two women, Marguerite Mespoulet and Madeleine Mignon-Alba arrived in Ireland and spent a number of weeks in Ireland. Unfortunately, Kahn's motives were not well-timed and the world was taken over by the Great War. However, the quality and depth of colour of the photos online are breath-taking (see in particular the photo of the curragh and shawl).