“In this series I photographed famed Irish actress Olwen Fouéré, named one the greatest Irish artists, in and around her childhood home in Connemara, on Ireland’s Atlantic coast. The house sits beside a tidal island — a landscape shaped by disappearance and return. The project grew from the idea of “thin places”: locations where the boundary between worlds is believed to become permeable.
The landscape is not simply a backdrop. Fouéré grew up here, and the series returns her to a place that has profoundly shaped her. The Atlantic coastline of Connemara — exposed, unpredictable and constantly shifting — mirrors the qualities that have defined her career: independence, resilience and a refusal to conform. Known for physically expressive and boundary-pushing performances, Fouéré has always moved between disciplines and forms. In these images she appears less as a character than a presence formed by that environment, grounded in the physical landscape while echoing something older and mythic. In the images where Olwen is inside her family home she is wearing a piece by il-Bambolina, made from traditional lace doilies and industrial chains. The pairing references inherited expectations of femininity — domestic, decorative and restrained — while Fouéré’s presence resists them. Her posture and gaze introduce a tension between those imposed symbols and the independence that has defined her career.
Mythology threads through the styling and materials used in the series. A cape of swan feathers by Ela Olszewska references Irish swan legends of transformation, where human and animal forms dissolve into one another. I also made a dress of white hair specifically for the shoot to reference time and the notion of what endures beyond us. The project also includes a white silk dress by emerging Connemara designer Sasha Donellan, bringing another generation of artists from the same landscape into the work. The collaboration creates a dialogue between past and present, linking Fouéré’s long artistic career with younger creative voices rooted in the same place.” – A series by Becca Geden.