My Derry – The Willie Curran Collection

Description

Willie Curran

Willie Curran bought his first box camera in a Derry chemist’s more than 60 years ago – and has been looking through a viewfinder ever since.

Protests and parties, weddings and riots, concerts and cart races, Willie has never missed a beat. In his time, he’s done it all – from developing his own black-and-white slides to filming with a drone.

This new collection is just a snapshot of his hugely interesting life – and provides us with a warm, nostalgic and moving portrait of Willie’s friends, family and an ever-changing city. With hundreds of previously unpublished photographs, My Derry: The Willie Curran Collection is a fascinating community perspective of the city and an important addition to its cultural archive.

A compassionate portrayal of a city community. The images date largely from the 1960s to the present day and offer a massive insight into Derry society, and its changes, over the past half-century. Garbhan Downey, author

Willie Curran, a working-class hero in my judgement, has made a contribution which will outlast many others. His prescience in recording the ‘growing up’ of his family, community and city provides us all with a priceless and irreplaceable insight of the life and times of Derry, the town that he loves so well. Mitchel McLaughlin, Speaker of the Stormont Assembly (2013–15)