Lesley Doyle photographic archives

Collection

Identifier: BC-2021-018

Staff Only

Dates

Creation: 1975, 1985-2003

Scope and Contents

Lesley Doyle photographic archives spans her freelance career in photojournalism and commercial photography work for nonprofit community development organizations. Her output was largely journalistic in the 1980s and early 1990s, but by 2000 her work was predominantly used in publicity and annual reports for nonprofits. Doyle's photojournalistic work captured daily life in Catholic and Protestant Belfast communities; student and worker protests; women political and community leaders; the aftermath of political violence; music and the arts with a focus on jazz and theater; sporting events; parades celebrating the Twelfth (Orangemen's Day); and children.

Work pertaining to children and child welfare includes documentation of Bulgarian orphanages and homes for disabled children and United States President George H.W. Bush's visit to Baidoa, Somaila. There are also photographs featuring the Travelling People and Roma communities of both Northern Ireland and Bulgaria. Commercial work completed for community development groups features staff, events, and programs for the Children's Law Centre, Community Change, Community Relations Council, Law Centre Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Northern Ireland Women's Initiative, and Workers Education Association.

Also included are some papers providing context for Doyle's work, including correspondence, daily planners including the locations in which she was working at a given time, and printed materials featuring her images.

Creator

Doyle, Lesley, 1959- (Person)

Restrictions on access

Collection is open for research.

Digital photographs on optical disc are not available for playback due to format impermanence and have not yet been reformatted. Negatives are not an access medium and are not available for use; print photographs are available for access. Color positive transparencies require use of a light box provided by the Burns Library Reading Room.

Restrictions on use

These materials are made available for use in research, teaching and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source. The original authors may retain copyright to the materials.

Biographical Note

Lesley Doyle was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1959 to Bill (1925-2010) and Tina Doyle. Lesley learned the craft of photography in her father's Dublin studio. In 1980 she moved to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she established herself as a freelance photographer whose black-and-white documentary-style photographs were used by periodicals such as Fortnight magazine, as well as East Belfast Post, Belfast Telegraph, and Irish News newspapers. She also produced color photographs documentating sports and leisure for tabloids and weekend magazines including Sunday Life and Sunday World. Doyle was the principal photographer and photo editor for the short-lived weekly newspaper Shankill People (1990-1992).

In 1991, Doyle won the Northern Bank Press Photographer of the Year Award in the "People" category. The same year she became the first female Chairperson of the Northern Ireland Press Photographers Association. In the mid-1990s Doyle began expanding her work documenting communities to include commercial work for non-profit and non-government organizations (NGOs) working on community development in Northern Ireland. Her work for Concern Worldwide documenting their efforts in war-torn Somalia (1993) and Save the Children documenting children in Northern Ireland (mid-1990s) and in Bulgaria (1997), may have provided the bridge from her photojournalistic style to her commercial work.

By the early 2000s, the bulk of Doyle's work was capturing events and staff for NGOs, providing images for promotional ephemera and annual reports. She worked with Belfast communications firms Cooper-Keaney Communications and Totus Communications to document, among others, the Democratic Dialogue, Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Community Relations Council, Women's Coalition, Workers Education Association, and United Response.

Sources:

"Winner!" Shankill Pepole June 1991 newspaper clipping, Box 12, Folder 11, Lesley Doyle photographic archives, BC.2021.018, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Planning correspondence and notes, Box 12, Folders 12-15, Lesley Doyle photographic archives, BC.2021.018, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

"Bill Doyle, Renowned lensman of 'respectful approach'." The Irish Times, December 4, 2010.

Extent

22 Linear Feet (38 containers)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Photographic archives of freelance photographer Lesley Doyle document Northern Ireland in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Collection comprises negatives, contact sheets, photographic prints, and positive transparencies, as well as a small number of paper-based records of her work and its publication. Topics covered include Northern Ireland community development following the Good Friday agreement; prominent artists, politicians, and religious leaders in the Northern Ireland public eye; sports; parades and protests; and children and child welfare. Doyle's earliest photojournalism also documents political violence in Northern Ireland in the late 1980s-1990s.

Arrangement

Arranged in three series: I. Film-based photographs, II. Digital photographs, and III. Documents.

The film-based photographs series is further divided into two subseries: A. Journalism, and B. Commercial photography, and the Journalism subseries is further divided into: 1. Northern Ireland and 2. International.

Provenance

Purchased from Lesley Doyle through Kennys Bookshop & Art Galleries (2020).

Related Materials

Bobbie Hanvey photographic archives, MS.2001.039, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Michael Schwartz Northern Ireland photographs, MS.2018.005, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Separated Materials

Published works associated with this collection, including annual reports and periodicals featuring Doyle's work, have been transferred within Burns Library and can be found in the Boston College Library catalog.

Processing Information

Because Doyle's commercial work was largely for groups committed to community development, a topic she documented through her journalism as well, there is cross-over in content between the two sets of materials. However, the commercial work more generally documents the organizations themselves, while the journalism focuses on the communities. This division of material is based on Doyle's own practice of labeling her work. The materials she labeled with subjects or publication titles are arranged into the Journalism subseries. Those labeled with the name of an organization are in the commercial work subseries.