Photography

Under the Spell of the Emerald Isle: Where Myths are Alive

The spirit of Ireland is captured in this volume through its landscapes and legends. Renowned photographer Max Schmid, who has traveled the island for decades, has portrayed its unique charm in his distinctive, mystical images – from the gentle coasts in the east to the verdant hills and dramatic cliffs of the north and west. Author Gabrielle Alioth, who has lived in Ireland for over forty years, retells the country's sagas and myths with a touch of humor and a twinkle in her eye. 

These stories form a vital foundation for the identity of this history-rich island and remain vibrant to this day. The classic Irish legends of the Ulster Cycle and the Fenian Cycle serve as the basis for her texts. Originally rooted in Celtic times, these tales have been reimagined and adapted over the centuries to fit contemporary (narrative) contexts – as they are also in this book.

Visits to indigenous ethnic groups around the world whose habitats are threatened by external influences and bringing images of them and their habitat together in installations to show that everything and everyone is connected in our age of climate change. 

Climate change threatens not only nature, ecosystems and biodiversity, but above all people themselves. To make this visible, Barbara Dombrowski has spent ten years visiting climate-relevant sites on all five inhabited continents and immersing herself in the lives of indigenous peoples whose existence is threatened: the Inuit of East Greenland, the Achuar and Shuar in the Amazon rainforest, Mongolian nomads in the Gobi desert, the Maasai of Tanzania, and the Micronesian population of the island state of Kiribati in the fragile world of the South Pacific. 

On life-size textile banners, she presented the people of one region in the habitat of another of the ethnic groups she visited. Through this juxtaposition, she powerfully demonstrates the need to build global bridges and to become aware of a shared responsibility. The portraits themselves, the photographic documentation of the symbolic installations, and the very personal descriptions of her visits illustrate and address the climate crisis on multiple levels in a haunting way.