Redd

 SECOND PRIZE WINNER - GOMMA GRANT 2024:"The second-place winner of the 2024 Gomma Photography Grant, Paul Carroll with ‘Redd’, is a poignant meditation on Ireland’s waterways and the fragile relationship between humans and their environment. Through grainy black-and-white images, Carroll turns his lens toward the country’s vast network of rivers and canals—silent witnesses to both nurture and neglect. By capturing these waterways at moments of extreme exposure—during the heat and drought of 2018—Carroll unveils a submerged world rarely seen. Discarded objects, remnants of daily life, and the spectral presence of history emerge from beneath the water’s surface, transforming these images into quiet yet powerful testimonies. Through careful attention to seasonal water levels and natural light, he reveals the delicate interplay between people and nature, where the past resurfaces in ways both beautiful and unsettling. Beyond its visual elegance, Redd carries a deeper urgency. With Ireland’s pristine rivers dwindling from 500 in 1980 to just 20 by 2019, Carroll’s work underscores the environmental cost of progress. His personal connection—rooted in a childhood memory of nearly drowning—adds another layer of emotional depth, making Redd not just an environmental statement but a poetic exploration of impermanence. This series stands as both a warning and a tribute, urging us to reconsider what we value before it vanishes beneath the surface.« Luca Desienna Doris - Gomma«Redd by Paul Carroll explores how communities in Ireland interact with its 84,800 km of waterways across 3,192 inland water bodies. These rivers and canals, silent yet persistent, witness the rhythms of human life, both nurturing and destructive. In the summer of 2018, with persistent high temperatures and little rainfall, inland waterways exposed a submerged world of discarded objects and remnants of daily life. Carroll captures these moments from vantage points looking directly into canals and rivers. He uses seasonal water levels and natural light to reveal the fragile interaction between people and environment. The series highlights the toll on Ireland’s waterways, with pristine rivers declining from 500 in 1980 to 20 in 2019. As Ireland transitioned from a struggling economy to a powerhouse, globalisation reshaped the landscape and intensified environmental pressures. Agricultural practices, altered waterways, wastewater discharges, and forestry have all contributed to this decline. Redd is personal study to Carroll, tied to a childhood memory of nearly drowning when a riverbank collapsed while he was fishing. The fleeting beauty of the submerged world, coupled with themes of impermanence, imbues the work with a meditation on the fragile balance between what we cherish and what slips away." Paul Carroll