CASTLES
Journalists, photographers and camera crews have followed the conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland closely for years now, but attention has rarely been given to the consequences the conflict had for the urban environment. Olley photographed the heavily armed observation posts and forts erected by the British, which define the street scene in Northern Ireland. They loom up over shops, pubs and fish and chips shops like modern castles. Now that the British army is slowly but surely withdrawing as a part of the peace process which has since gotten under way, the buildings and towers are being demolished brick by brick. This makes Olley’s photographs a form of visual historiography.
