Jesuits publish book of Fr Browne photography

An exciting new book featuring never seen before photographs taken by one of Ireland's greatest photographers, who was also a Jesuit priest, was published this week. 

The book, entitled Fr Browne Yeats features nearly 42,000 prints by Fr Francis Browne, a native of Sunday's Well in Cork City, from when he was just a seventeen-year-old photographer in 1897 to shortly before his death in 1960.  

Coupled with the poetry of WB Yeats, the book features the Fr Browne’s pictures of people, panoramic scenes, ships, trains and landscapes - all shot on his primitive Kodak Box Camera.

Speaking this week the curator of the collection.  

Fr EE O'Donnell SJ, said, “Various authorities have compared his work to that of Doisneau and Cartier-Bresson, but much of his work predates them.” 

Father Browne's great collection of negatives lay forgotten for over 25 years until after his death in 1960.  

Indeed it was by chance that Fr O'Donnell discovered the lost collection in a large metal trunk and brought the negatives to the attention of the features editor at the Sunday Times in London who dubbed them the photographic equivalent of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

An interesting facet of Fr Browne's book is no doubt his pictures of the Titanic on its ill-fated voyage from Southampton in England to Cobh, in County Cork before it continued on its voyage to New York.

Fortunately for Fr Browne was asked by his superiors to disembark in Cobh in County Cork. 

All rights to Fr Browne's collection are owned by the Jesuit's in Ireland.  

The book is published by Messenger Publications and retails for €24.99.

SIC: CIN/IE

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