Richard O’Farrell’s passion for photography was fired when his late father, the eminent historian Professor Patrick O’Farrell, challenged him with a project – to produce a series of black and white images for his book, Vanished Kingdoms (NSWUP, 1990), a history of the Irish in Australia and New Zealand.

With maps and a guide to hidden cemeteries and other historical places in Victoria, New South Wales and New Zealand, Richard O’Farrell came across powerful moments and imagery. He not only completed the project successfully but also exhibited the photographs under the title The Shaken Foil at the Chapter Hall Museum, Sydney, in 1992.

In 1994 O’Farrell exhibited Silent Spaces in association with an international conference on the influence of philosopher Michel Foucault. Some of the photographs from this exhibition were used to illustrate the conference report, Foucault: The Legacy (QUT, 1997).

More recently O’Farrell’'s photographs have been shown in various venues on the NSW Central Coast where he is based. His series of photographs entitled One was first exhibited in April 2005 in the Gosford Regional Gallery. Later that year an expanded version of One was presented at point light to popular and critical acclaim. These spare and elegant images each embodied one thought, one moment, one object or person, peacefully alone.

O’Farrell’s second solo exhibition at point light, Virginia’s Dance School, held in October 2006, was a sublime photographic essay of young people expressing themselves through dance.

If you would like to know more about Richard O’Farrell, his latest projects and portfolios of photographs, please visit point light gallery or go to his website at www.richardofarrell.com.au

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