HAVE you seen enough photos of Dublin kids with their horses? Perry Ogden has not, and neither, apparently, have the astoundingly large crowds of fashion camp followers who attended the opening of the Vogue photographer turned social commentator's outdoor exhibition in Smithfield market.
Ogden removes all specific background detail from his portraits of youths with their horses, but the erasure turns out to be temporary. The white spaces within the frame are more than compensated for by the dilapidated architectural setting of the hang. Consequently, the open air installation, which promises to distinguish these images from those that have become the staple of Dublin travel reportage, has an opposite effect.
Ogden may temporarily peel away some of the specificity of his sitters situations, but the message is the same as ever. The conjunction of horses and branded sportswear clad "kids" - Larry Clark is clearly a reference point - still carries a familiar, trite message about the Celtic soul surviving in the concrete jungle.
