My mother (91) expressed her frustration with the number of immigrants working in her nursing home. I reminded her that both of her children were emigrants not émigrés; that on arriving elsewhere, we became economic immigrants; that all five of her grandchildren were born elsewhere; that they inherited the opportunities of dual nationality.
“It’s not the same thing at all” she said dismissively.
All Images © Simon Robinson 2024
Available now from Bracket Books Ireland at outlets like FabHappy or WalkingCommentary.
Population growth and poor global governance increase the likelihood of conflict through competition for dwindling resources. Population movements will continue, as they have for millennia, as people adjust to what their surroundings can or can’t support.
Images of a better life, once seen on cinema and TV screens, are everywhere social media reaches. Handphone users thus have a comparative measure of their disadvantages. Perhaps it’s the visual evidence of disposable incomes that taunts the despairing with promises of opportunity.
Migrants often risk everything to escape persecution, conflict, pestilence, famine, poverty or their compounding combinations. On arrival, they set about building better lives. The luckiest migrants will have found sanctuaries in which to improve their children’s prospects but it may be in isolation from family and friends.
I cycled around daytime County Dublin looking for 39 businesses to illustrate the hospitality reciprocated by migrants. I sought photographs to honour their efforts. And of course I used a smartphone throughout.
Unsurprisingly, low rent sites in decaying urban settings dominate. A Bolivian flag in a temporary stall on an urban street suggests a new start-up. The Nepalese MoMo mobile food-truck has been selling dumplings for years. The suburban Thai House restaurant celebrated 25 years recently. The Bretzel Bakery opened over 150 years ago. And many Calvinist Huguenots found refuge over 300 years ago. Not all of the shuttered premises are evening businesses.
This 39th chapbook is the final edition. The eponymous title is spoken as san kyu in Japanese which is widely used as text message slang for “thank you”.
39 for your interest and support.
Sepsis after biopsy, hormone treatment and 39 fractions of external beam radiotherapy took a toll. During the cancer downtime, I imagined a series of photozines. I sketched out a plan with 39 topics, survived and recovered. I went back to work but didn’t forget the notion. Six years passed before pandemic downtime handed me the opportunity and over the last three, I produced the 39 chapbooks. It’s done.
Bracket Books printed chapbooks are available for online purchase through FabHappy but perhaps you’d prefer to enquire here. They were published each calendar month, each copy uniquely numbered and posted at the end of each month. Prices include packaging, delivery, all currency and inflation risks.
Issue 39 – limited edition of 200/Published by Bracket Books Ireland
2023/4 SUBSCRIPTIONS
Chapbooks 25 to the final issue 39 (15 issues):
Republic of Ireland: €135
Rest of World: €145 / UK£125 / US$145
Institutions add 30%
Prices include p&p and processing fees.
This series has been such an amazing adventure, Simon. I’ve enjoyed the surprises of each new theme, and I’ve loved so many images that didn’t make it into the final, printed version of the chapbooks.
I’m so very proud of you, that you did it, and did it in such style.
Xx