If it hadn’t rained

The Willie Carson Archive

Derry/Londonderry
Artist: Michael McGinley
Collaboration with: Mary Carson & Locky Morris
Dry Collodion, C-Type, Giclee, variable dimensions
2023 — 2024

‘If it hadn’t rained’ invites us to rethink the ideas of photography and memory. Clearly what photography is or isn't, has become a broad and complex cultural concern. Employing traditional analogue photographic technologies and AI, the project explores the interplay between individual and collective memory.

“Never before has an age been so informed about itself, if being informed means having an image of objects...Never before has a period known so little about itself.“ Siegfried Kracauer, 1927

We find ourselves at the crossroads of crisis and opportunity. Archives once stood as a symbols of our past, as reminders of our intertwined histories and the narratives that shaped our worldview. They weren't without biases and they relied on the testinomy and witness of collective groups and Individuals.

Similarily, the extensive image datasets used to train AI systems in computer vision are be subject to various biases and programming directions. The ontological state of photography is under duress, with the traditional understanding of a photograph as a direct representation of a moment in time, created through the interaction of light with a photosensitive surface, being challenged by AI-generated images.

Dry Collodion 5x4 inches

If it hadn’t rained

This predicament begs the question: does the AI-driven mimicry of photography encroach upon our sense of uniqueness, or can it be harnessed to fortify our shared understanding of the world? As the essence of the photographic medium evolves, we must grapple with the delicate balance between innovation and the preservation of our individual identities and collective histories.

The project has been developed in response to photo-archive of Willie Carson. Willie was my uncle and a much celebrated photo journalist in Derry, N-Ireland. His documenting of 'The Troubles' led to his work being published internationally. The body of photographic evidence that Willie generated thoughout this period was enormous and only a small percentage of it found its way into journalistic use at the time.

If it hadn’t rained

If it hadn’t rained

His archive presents a comprehensive chronicle of life in Derry, capturing the essence of the city and its people. As a member of the Irish Diaspora, I found myself drawn to the idea of employing photography as a means to delve into my own fragmented identity, juxtaposing my personal experiences with the city I left behind in my youth.

Both my identity and the ontological state of photography seem to exist in a state of flux, defying clear definition or categorization. This quest to reconcile the disparate fragments of my history became a metaphorical journey, with the photographic medium serving as a bridge between past and present, memory and reality.

If it hadn’t rained

“The earliest of these forms was the pinhole camera, which was more “found” than invented.
It morphed into the optical camera obscura, was reborn as chemical photography, migrated
into literature and painting, and lives on in a digital form. It will not end until we do.”

The miracle of analogy, or, The history of photography / Kaja Silverman. 2015

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If It Hadn’t Rained

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