Legendary Dublin photographer remembered

IN the modern day, we post images to Facebook or other social media sites and our family or friends around the world instantly have the chance to see what’s going on in our lives.

A serious fire or crash happens in our city and onlookers point their camera phones in that direction to capture the scene.

These have become part of Ireland today. However, long before everybody was carrying cameras in their pockets, the task of capturing news and daily life in Ireland was the job of a small group of people.

One of those was Drumcondra man Pat Maxwell, who sadly passed away recently.

Born in 1929, Pat worked at the Irish Times before setting up the Maxwell Picture Agency in the 1960s with his wife Marie.

Over the years Pat was responsible for some of the most iconic Irish images including Brendan Behan, The Beatles’ visit to Ireland and the last photo of Earl Mountbatten on his boat hours before he was murdered by the IRA.

In more recent times, Maxwell’s was the agency chosen as the official photographer for the visits of Queen Elizabeth and Barack Obama.

Pat was passionate about his profession, and encouraged every young photographer that passed through the door of his business, located to the rear of his Drumcondra home.

I was forunate enough to have been one of those lucky to work for Maxwell’s in the late 1990s and I have to say that Pat’s passion was infectious and it carries on through his sons Mark and Tony today. His agency was always at the cutting edge of technology and it was there that I got my first look at the photography software Photoshop in the years before digital cameras had arrived.

While Google and Flickr are now the order of the day, the raw beauty of Pat’s images will serve our future generations in telling the story of Ireland in the late 20th century. May he rest in peace.

*Darren Kinsella is staff photographer at Northside People.