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The Narrow Margins: Photography and the Terrain Vague

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Part of the book series: New Directions in Irish and Irish American Literature ((NDIIAL))

Abstract

Through analysis of photographic representations of Irish suburbia, this chapter draws attention to multiform changes in the physical landscape wrought by suburbanisation. The author uses the concept of terrain vague to offer new insights into the aesthetics of Irish suburban photography. He suggests that recent Irish photographic practices have undergone a ‘topographical turn’ in which landscape is not simply documented, but that Irish photography played a vital role in concentrating the eye on the cultural and economic forces that actively transformed Ireland, and to which there has been much political and public blindness.

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Correspondence to Justin Carville .

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Carville, J. (2018). The Narrow Margins: Photography and the Terrain Vague. In: Smith, E., Workman, S. (eds) Imagining Irish Suburbia in Literature and Culture. New Directions in Irish and Irish American Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96427-0_13

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