Artists' Voices: Life in a Pandemic | Amelia Stein in conversation from County Mayo

Episode 2 of a new series of oral histories, led by Donal Maguire, curator of the Gallery's ESB CSIA, documenting some of the experiences and thoughts of artists living and working through the COVID-19 emergency. In this second episode, Amelia Stein discusses her approach to photographing the landscape, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on her practice. This conversation was recorded on 1 May 2020. The artist dedicates this recording to the memory of Ailbhe Garvin. Born in Dublin, Amelia Stein lives and works between Dublin City and the Erris region of north-west Mayo. She is a photographer who focuses primarily on portraiture and landscape. Her collections include portraits of artists and aspects of the landscape and coastline of north Mayo. About Artists' Voices: Life in a Pandemic: Oral histories are a unique record of an individual’s personal thoughts and experiences. They are a valuable source of knowledge for researchers, providing insight and connection to a person’s life and character. The ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art, at the National Gallery of Ireland, builds, cares for and makes available the national record of art in Ireland for public study and interpretation. Oral histories are a type of archival record and form an interesting part of the ESB CSIA’s collection. In recognizing the significant impact of COVID-19, the ESB CSIA is carrying out a series of short conversations with artists to document some of their experiences and thoughts of living and working through the pandemic. These conversations, led by Donal Maguire, Curator of the ESB CSIA, were recorded using technology that is conveniently available to the artist. The use of commonplace technologies for this project reflects the more general and increasing significance of these platforms for everyday communication. The ESB CSIA acknowledges the generosity of the artists for agreeing to talk about their life and work during this uncertain time. This oral history project has been generously supported by ESB, sponsor of the ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art