Local artist explores fatherhood and rural memory in Louth
Local artist Stephen Hurley announces new photography projects exploring fatherhood and rural memory in County Louth
Visual artist Stephen Hurley has announced two new photography projects that mark a significant direction in his evolving artistic practice.
Working from Dundalk, Stephen’s recent work shifts from the graphic, mixed-media approach associated with his earlier projects toward a more documentary-led photographic practice rooted in observation, place, and lived experience.
The first project, Nowadays, is an upcoming pop-up photography exhibition taking place at Creative Spark’s Downtown Hub this August.
Developed over several months, the project centres around everyday life, movement, and personal transition. The series emerged following the arrival of Stephen’s son, when drives around town became both routine and a creative catalyst.
Originally beginning as a return to photography, Nowadays gradually evolved into a reflective study on fatherhood, creative change, and the challenge of sustaining artistic practice within the rhythms of contemporary life.
Captured across streets, quiet moments, and passing environments, the work documents fragments of everyday experience while exploring ideas of care, routine, and observation.
Running parallel to this project is a longer-term photography-based body of work focused on rural landscapes, abandoned farm homes, and changing patterns of rural life across County Louth.
Supported by the Louth County Arts Office, the project combines documentary photography and portraiture to explore changing patterns of rural life, memory, and place across County Louth.
Through a focus on rural landscapes, abandoned farm homes, and occasional personal narratives, the work reflects on the evolving relationship between people and place.
Over the next 12–15 months, the project will also include a series of artist-led workshops and a public artist talk aimed at increasing access to contemporary photography and visual storytelling within local communities.
Public engagement forms part of the work, inviting participants to explore photography as a tool for observation, ethics, narrative, and personal reflection.
Together, the projects represent a significant transition in Stephen’s practice. Previously working under the name Habitus Prime, his earlier work explored surrealism, pop culture, street aesthetics, and graphic design through mixed media, screen printing, and installation.
Projects from this period include Local Legends, commissioned by An Táin Arts Centre in 2021, alongside exhibitions such as Oneiric with Bó Studios.
While the visual language of the work has evolved, recurring themes remain present throughout Stephen’s practice, including narrative, identity, emotional experience, and experimentation with image-making processes.
Stephen works from Bó Studios, supported by An Táin Arts Centre, and is an active member of Creative Spark and the Creative Spark Print Studio.
Further details on exhibition dates, workshops, artist talks, and public presentations will be announced in the coming months.