AN exhibition by pioneering Irish photographer Fr Francis Browne depicting the lives of soldiers on battlefields of the First World War will be launched by Kevin Myers at Hunt Museum on Thursday, July 9, 6pm.
This will be followed on Friday July 10 at 1pm by Myers, authority on WWI, giving a talk on ‘Fr Browne, Limerick and Ireland’s Great War’. No. 69 O’Connell Street is venue.
Speaking of the priest who took the last photographs on board Titanic and later served as army chaplain, winning the Military Cross with the Irish Guards, Myers said that he “came from a Cork merchant family, longstanding grandees who had lots of money. This enabled them to spend a fortune on photographs and photography collections, which was a very expensive business then”.
“Fr Browne had the most uncanny eye and he was a genius behind the camera. He had a wonderful sense of life, sense of perspective and his work looks as if he had been painting”.
“He was an Irish man, a warrior, a Jesuit and much loved by his men. His other great ability was to conjure a work of art out of nothing”.
Upwards of 5,000 photographs have survived; some 38 will exhibit in Limerick, in collaboration with Cavan County Museum.
