Photographic Treasure Trove Launched in IT Tralee

Padraig Kennelly Snr. with sons Jerry, Brendan, Padraig and Brendan at the launch.

A fascinating book featuring 240 photographs of Tralee and Co. Kerry, many of them hitherto unpublished, has been launched at the Institute of Technology (Oct 29). The book entitled “EYEWITNESS “, published by the Collins Press, showcases the photography of Tralee based photographers Padraig Kennelly and his late wife Joan. Padraig and Joan were co-founders of the Kerry Eye newspaper in 1974. The beautifully presented book, which is sure to become a collector’s item,  features 256 pages of art quality, black and white, photo reproductions covering the period 1953 to 1973.  An accompanying digital archive of some 150,000 images is available on the web at the Kennelly Archive www.kennellyarchive.com.

The Kennelly Archive, the brainchild of Jerry Kennelly,  was set up in 2007 to digitally capture the work of the Kennellys from a carefully filed archive of negatives over a fifty-year period. The objective of the archive is to ensure that this valuable work is protected and shared with future generations.

New imaging techniques and technology have allowed the Archive team to interpret the delicate negatives in a way that was not possible when the photographs were originally taken. A skilled team of digital archivists, retouchers and researchers has allowed the imagery to be protected and to be made available for future generations.

The Archive team, based in Killorglin, Co. Kerry and Mumbai, India used new 'raw' digital imaging software and techniques to reinterpret the original negatives, producing tonal quality and detail which was not possible through photographic processes.

Each negative was scanned on a bank of Hasselblad scanners. The original proof books which Padraig and Joan Kennelly became the first source of caption information. This was supplemented by research from local newspapers and the generous assistance of local people in Tralee.  All proceeds from the sale of EYEWITNESS will go to the Kennelly Foundation, a registered charity.

An exhibition featuring photographs from the archive continues in the North Campus Library of the Institute of Technology, Tralee until December 8th, 2009.

                                        Padraig Kennelly Snr. with Michael Carmody, Director, ITT.