Living in Kilburn for two years, historically the home of the Irish emigrant, Enda found the inspiration to photograph the cherry blossom.
The transience of the blossoms has often been associated with mortality: new beginnings and endings. In the Japanese tradition in particular, cherry blossom is an enduring metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life.
Wandering the streets of Kilburn, noticing many elderly Irish people and people of many other nationalities too, he began to wonder at the twists and turns their lives had taken, what their hopes were when they were young and moved to the city, and how their dreams had evolved.
The cherry blossom, especially in the more incongruous urban settings, became, for Enda, a symbol for these emigrants and for their lives, actual and imagined.
He was privileged and honoured to work with respected award winning poet Don Paterson who contributed his poem, Renku: My Last Thirty Five Deaths. This poem works in unison with the selected thirty two images.
The book was published by Jane and Jeremy in a special edition of one hundred copies. It recently received the Birgitta Skiold award of excellence at the London Art Book Fair, Whitechapel Gallery. The Victoria and Albert Museum have acquired a copy of Kilburn Cherry for their National Art Collection Library, and it was included in the On Landscape Project exhibition at the Materia Gallery Rome.
145mm x 200mm
Letterpressed cover
60 pages
Handmade
First edition of 100
