SHALLOW WATERS

The Naughton Gallery proudly collaborates with Belfast Photo Festival to present Joe Laverty’s Shallow Waters as part of Queen’s University Belfast’s annual Arts and Sustainability Festival, REACH ’25.

 

Lough Neagh is the largest body of water in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It connects five counties and is often referred to as a county in itself. The lough is central to life in Northern Ireland, but also has 9% of its catchment area in the Republic of Ireland. It is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Europe, and it is dying in plain sight. A perfect storm of pollution, sand dredging, poor regulation, invasive species, and hereditary ownership is leading to a near collapse of the lough's ecosystem, most visibly realised through the blooms of toxic blue-green algae in summertime.

 

Shallow Waters aims to investigate the way myth and tradition sit alongside heavy industry and how closely connected they are despite being at odds with each other. Through a photographic investigation of the landscape, its people, and traditions, Laverty charts a thread of connection between the two opposing engagements with the shallow waters of Lough Neagh as it negotiates the threats of pollution and regulatory negligence.

 

Folklore suggests many differing accounts of how Lough Neagh ‘appeared’, and it plays a huge part in the life of the people who reside upon its shores. People still converge on Washing Bay on the Summer Solstice, where it has long been claimed the water has healing qualities, whilst Sean-nós singing and traditional music is still hugely popular around Lough Neagh’s shores. Folklore and tradition sit side by side with the industry and agriculture that is threatening the ecosystem of the lough.

 

Shallow Waters has been nominated for the 11th cycle of the Prix Pictet.

 

Joe Laverty is an Irish photographic artist and filmmaker. His work explores place and our human interaction with it, specifically focusing on marginal or overlooked areas within both urban and rural contexts. While earlier work concentrated on urban spaces, Laverty’s recent practice investigates the intersection of extraction industries and historical narratives within the rural Irish landscape. His images convey a sense of stillness, abandonment, and the subtle tension between nature and industrial intervention where human impact and nature coexist in quiet conflict.

 

Laverty’ s work has been exhibited in Dublin, London, Belfast, Galway, Navan, and Tallinn, and has been published in RIBA Journal, The Architects’ Journal, Dezeen, Wallpaper, The Irish Times, Source, Huck, and The Guardian. He completed an MFA in Photography at Ulster University, Belfast, in 2022.