John Minihan (Irish, b. 1946)
Taking to photography at an early age, at 21, Minihan became the youngest staff photographer for the London paper the Evening Standard. He is best known for his work in and about his hometown of Athy, which he started at 16 and continued throughout his life. The photos document ordinary Irish people in their day-to-day, in times of joy and sadness.
Over the years Minihan developed a close relationship with many writers. In particular he is known for photographing his friend Samuel Beckett. They have since become some of the most famous images of the author, which Minihan started after Beckett’s 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature. Minihan has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the National Portrait Gallery, London; and the Guinness Hop Store, Dublin.
