Martin Cregg Photography

Midlands is a book by Irish Documentary Photographer Martin Cregg, which charts the construction of the Irish midlands region from the height of the Irish economic boom in the early part of the decade, to the economic insecurities and uncertainties of recession times. The work was first shown at the Gallery of Photography, Dublin in June 2008 – the very week the Irish government made its downbeat proclamation of the harder times which lay ahead.

The book focuses on the concept of what the concept of ‘The Midlands’ is in its essence – non-defined, non-geographic, non-place. It charts the confident thrust of building activity which was undertaken in the region at the height of what we have come to know as the ‘Celtic Tiger’ - housing estates, commercial parks, etc - creations of government tax incentives which, it was anticipated, would lead to a dynamic transformation in the region itself, generating business and providing homes which would lay claim to community. This dream however has not materialised. In the rural mid-land areas, the factories which promised to hum with productivity now lay dormant, the houses which promised security lay helplessly unoccupied. In the context of recession, these structures are stripped of the aura of hope they once had - laying bare a certain reality of the unstable nature of the country’s current economic situation.

Available from the Gallery of Photography, Dublin or by contacting the author.