‘I’m creating a historical record,’ says Dublin photographer travelling Ireland to collect images of the changing environment

In May of this year, it was announced that Paula T Nolan will undertake a 12-month project, titled ‘ReViewing Ireland: A Photo Study of Ireland’s Environment’, where she will visit all 26 counties using public transport – and collect images as well as taking new photographs that enable Irish people to understand where we have come from, where we are – and where we are going.

“You learn something new every day, it’s an extraordinary thing. I’m older than probably a lot of the applicants, I’m 64,” Ms Nolan told the Irish Independent.

“What’s brilliant about it is you never stop learning because I’m not a scientist, an environmentalist, or a historian, and every trip I make is just a massive learning curve.

“I thought I knew Ireland, but I was basing an awful lot of my thoughts on old thoughts, from 20, 30, 40 years ago. Going back around Ireland again, it’s just like a different country.

“Like most people, I had all my fun up to the age of 30, became a mother and then started having fun again 25 years later. I have all my old ideas and it’s great to have them trashed.

“These photographs will be in the National Library collection for ever and ever, which captures one year of what’s going on in Ireland’s environment in all sorts of different ways.

“This project, in 30, 50 or 100 years’ time, people will look back and see that things were done very differently, and you’ll see hopefully a lot of positive change. I’m creating a historical record, that’s where the then and now photographs come in. You go back and you find an old photograph and see the changes since the photo was taken.”

Comparing her photos with her life 30 years ago, Paula herself has noticed many changes in Ireland, both good and bad.

“I’m doing this entire project using public transport with the very, very odd exceptions. Dublin public transport has improved phenomenally in the past 30 years. Even though people give out about it. The traffic jams that there used to be, there aren’t any more.

“The bus lanes have actually worked. The cycle lanes are extremely helpful because I’m cycling a lot of the time, it feels a lot safer. These are massive positive changes.

“Other things I would have noticed is the air has improved because I remember when the buses used to spew out the most noxious fumes, if you were cycling behind one, you’d be sick.

“A lot of people probably don’t remember this, but there was a period where cyclists wore face masks. I recall in the 1980s, cycling along the Quays, the buses used to leak a lot of fuel and my bike skidded on the fuel. It’s cleaner now.

“Going out has changed so radically now, one of the things I think is dreadful now is that it’s very hard to socialise without photographs of yourself appearing somewhere on social media. I think the lack of privacy and boundaries, I can’t imagine. I also think the pressure to look tip top has become enormous.”

Paula has reeducated herself about the country she lives in, and she has captured a lot of things she would have never known about before.

I live in the north Inner City, in the North Strand. I was interested in how, amidst all the pollution and the noise, there is so much beauty and nature, from the weeds through the cracks in the pavement to the bird life on the Royal Canal. Then places like Clontarf Bay, Sandymount, and the mountains.

“I spent an awful lot of time on the Royal Canal and did a lot of work there. I was interested in why as a human species we destroy the thing we love.

“I go along the Royal Canal and see evidence of people loving it. They’re walking on it, walking their dogs, they’re smiling, they’re looking at the birds but yet you see the rubbish people put in.

“I watched a Heron spend a long time just preening itself, moving about as if it existed in this quiet bubble.

“Yet all the time there were trucks going, buses and cars going over the bridge and horns honking, ambulances. So that interests me.”