PHOTOGRAPHER John Minihan describes climbing Nelson’s Column in London’s Trafalgar Square as his ‘zenith’.

By Mary McCarthy

The acclaimed artist, who turns 80 this week, scaled the monument in 1968 when it was being cleaned for the first time since World War II.

John scaling Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square

Now with an exibition at The National Gallery in Dublin, running from March 14th to October 11th , entitled Visual Poetry – The Photography of John Minihan, he humbly describes it as ‘certainly an accomplishment’.

The celebrated photographer, who has made Skibbereen his home, said: ‘This is one of the most exciting things in my life, coinciding with my 80th birthday.’

John was born at Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital on March 19th, 1946, and lived in Athy, Co Kildare with his aunt and uncle from the age of six months.

‘At nine years of age, I left for London,’ he recalls. ‘For a short while, I was enrolled in a Protestant school. After that, I attended St Edmund’s Secondary Mod School in Fulham.’

John has fond memories of St Edmund’s: 'There were lots of Irish children there. I felt at home and I was happy. If a child is happy, the world is happy,’ he said.

‘On leaving school at 15 I had intended to become an electrician. However, one day on reading a London newspaper, I spotted an advert for an office boy at the Daily Mail.’

That started a new adventure for the Irishman. ‘That became my work. It varied from making the manager’s coffee to being a runner with folios of stories. In fact, in 1963, I collected the folio of information on John F Kennedy’s assassination.’

The newspaper industry sparked his keen passion for photography: ‘When I worked for the newspapers, I loved the dark room. Photos developing and pleasing before my eyes. That was alchemy. That was magic.

‘The day Bert Redding, the man in charge of the office boys in The Daily Mail, asked if I would be interested in an apprenticeship in the dark room, I was absolutely delighted. That was in 1962, I became an apprentice at The Daily Mail, aged 16.’

The job involved replenishing the chemicals, printing photographs and replenishing paper lockers. 

‘I met sports photographers, feature photographers and fashion photographers, as well as general news photographers. All sending me the everyday reels from all over the world, which included photos from war zones,’ said John.

‘This was a huge responsibility. However, I started off on 50 shillings a week. To augment my meagre salary, I went to photograph pop groups like The Beatles, The Storm, and The Who. I also photographed actors. 

‘Because of those introductions, my photos appeared in newspapers. At 21 years of age, I got the job of staff photographer [at] The Evening Standard.’

John always loved books. He devoured works by Robert Louis Stevenson and Victor Hugo.

He became acquainted with the writers, George Bernard Shaw and Johnathon Millington Synge, both of whom were also accomplished photographers.

‘Sometime in the early 1920s, George Bernard Shaw was invited to Paris by the sculptor Roden,’ explains John. ‘While he was there, Shaw photographed for the first time, the German poet, Rainer Marie Rilker. 

‘A fellow Irish writer, John Millington Synge, author of The Playboy of the Western World, took many photographs, including capturing life of the islanders, when staying on the Aran Islands. 

‘Back then, he used those photos as an aide memoir for writing this play to remind him of specific details about the clothes and the boats the islanders had.’

At the turn of the century, Synge took photographs in Wicklow. In the 1970s, that collection was published to great acclaim by Liam Miller titled, My Wallet of Photographs.

‘Beckett was a fan of Synge’s writings,’ said John. ‘He could possibly have seen Synge’s photos of the two tramps on a road in Wicklow, wearing bowler hats and hobnail boots.

‘When he wrote Waiting for Godot, that photo could have influenced him in his characterisation of Vladimir and Estragon. In that play, these two tramps were waiting by a tree on a country road.’

In the summer of 1969, Samuel Beckett won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Samuel Beckett

There followed lots of exhibitions in Paris, Dublin, London, and New York, which featured John Minihan’s photographs. But there were very few photos of Beckett.

‘I photographed Beckett’s plays in London,’ reflects John. ‘At that time, I was friends with another Irish artist, Francis Bacon. In the 1970s, I wrote to Beckett in Paris. I got no reply. Then in the summer of 1980, I met him in London.’

Beckett had come to direct two plays at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, Endgame and Krapps Last Tape. They were performed by the San Quentin drama group.

‘In 1984, Beckett returned to London from Paris, to direct the masterpiece Waiting for Godot. In December 1985, he invited me to Paris. That was when I photographed him at his favourite coffee shop close to his home on Boulevard St Jacques at Le Petit Café,’ said John.

Beckett was a monumental figure in literature and Minihan’s rare portrait of him has gained iconic status.

In the 1920s, he was a huge part of the culture in Paris. At that time, this was the city James Joyce and Oscar Wilde knew well.

‘The West Cork Film Studios in Skibbereen are now making Hollywood movies,’ John said. ‘Last month, Grant Gee, the director of the film Everybody Digs Bill Evans won best director at the Berlin Film Festival. 

‘Last year, Grant Gee saw my black and white photos in a book at a local restaurant, and commissioned me to take black and white photographs of the production.’

Minihan concluded that film is a skill. He is still working and taking photographs with his Rolleiflex camera, as he celebrates becoming an octogenarian on March 19 th . And he’s happy to be living in Skibbereen in lovely West Cork.