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A hot air balloon makes its way across the sky as Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport Mary Hanafin launched the Birr International Hot Air Balloon Festival in Birr Castle Demesne. The festival which attracts balloonists from the UK, continental Europe and the US, takes place from May 27th-30th. Photograph: Seán Curtin/Press 22

Ok guys I’m posting the text in the interview because so many poeple have asked me……SO here it goes.

It’s the sort of the thing that only could happen in Ireland, I tease Sean Curtin as he settles down to explain the farce behind the change on name of his photo essay. ‘I’ve got all day,’ I reply to the 29-year-old press photogprapher with long hair and boyish looks.

The original title for the story was he explains, ‘Fab City’. This wasn’t meant to be ironic, he insists, but was to counteract the negative publicity attached to Limerick in the 1980s and ’90s, when it was nicknamed ‘Stab City’. Twenty years ago, every time opened a newspaper, you’d read about another stabbing in Limerick. The nickname stuck and now th National media take notice of even the smallest incident that happens today,’ he explains. Originally called Gardai observe crime spiral out of control in Limerick’, the PPAI (Press Photographers Association of Ireland) thought it would show Gardai in a bad light, and bring court proceedings upon the association, so they changed the name. On the PPAI’s website it’s called ‘Everyday Limerick life: crime death, decau and urban recreation’, and in the book and exhibition it is ‘Everyday scenes of contemporary Limerick’.

‘Both titles added fuel to the fire of local anger,’ Sean explains. He’s quick to point out that all these types of pictures don’t happen everyday, and that they were in fact, taken over the course of a year. ‘ By intimating that the pictures are normal everyday life, and could have been taken in one day didn’t do me any favours,’ he says, explaining that the photos were shot in specific areas, and that Limerick has the same drug and crime problems as any other modern Irish city. ‘There are alot of people who are very angry about the photos, and I’ve had an awful lot of verbal abuse’.

The picture story has never been published in the national newspapers or in any magazine in Ireland, though Sean’s local newspaper used a picture the size of a postage stamp from the winning set, and a large picture of him receiving his award. And, although the exhibition travelled the length and breath of Ireland, when it arrived in Limerick there was no warm Irish welcome for Sean. ‘I didn’t even receive an invitation to the opening night,’ he jokingly complains. ‘The organisers told me later it was a clerical error – its a bad show to the blaming priests, don’t you think.’ I groan inwardly at the witticism.

‘You can’t sweep these things under the table,’ he says turning serious. ‘If you go around saying it’s a great place, then you’re only fooling yourself. If I highlight this and get a lot of abuse, then maybe someone will stand up and admit that it is going on and do something about it’.

Whatever the politics behind the photos, Sean collected a major prize in the AIB PPAI Awards 2007, a competition that recognises the cream of Ireland’s press photographers.

The idea for the story began in 2007 when he was commissioned to shoot photos depicting the huge rise in anti-social behaviour and crime in Ireland for a political poster campaign. ‘I had a light-bulb moment,’ he explains. ‘It gave me the idea for a picture story and, as I live in Limerick ir made sense to concentrate on local pictures. In the beginning, shooting these types of photos wasn’t as hard as I had anticipated. I captured the street gangs, the kids on bikes and such like. But soon, I wanted to move up a level and focus on the real underlying problem.’

Sean says the pivotal moment came after photographing two local crime-related funerals. ‘From then on, I knew I was onto something good,’ he explains. ‘The final piece of the jigsaw was the photo of the gunman I took at Christmas’.

Everything was taken in colour, but after three days of editing thousands of images, he became despondent with the project. ‘I wanted to show the dark side of life and it wasn’t working in colour,’ he says. ‘So, I tried a differant approach and converted everything to black and white. I then banged up the contrast to give it that “AL Capone” feeling.’

The most difficult part was putting the story together in a running order, he says. ‘In the art world, people sit down with a storyboard and plan things out before shooting a single frame. I didn’t so I was going through pcitures over and over again, and showing then to friends and colleagues for their opinons.’

This was the first competition he had entered so he was determined to get it right on the night. ‘I took more than a week to arrange the running sequence,’ he recalls. ‘I never thought it was a winner, but I was really happy and would be pleased to hang the pictures on my own wall. When the awards were announced, it was super’.

In the 12 years he has been a press photographer for the Limerick-based agency Press 22, Sean has covered every type of assignment, with murders, riots and tough court cases now par for the course. So, I ask Sean what the biggest problem was when shooting a story that takes the photographer into the dark side of society. ‘Its the psychological stuff,’ he says. ‘You go into these areas expecting the worst, so when it doesn’t happen it’s a great relief. But there’s alot of intimidation from the young guys and that’s the big problem.’ In districts such as Moyross in Limerick, says Sean, getting pictures on murder or drug-bust stories is almost murderously difficult. Within seconds of arriving, he’ll be surrounded by hooded youths determined to run him out of the area. Covering the Limerick courts is also fraught with danger for photographers; Sean has been attacked several times by the younger elements of the criminal world, though the older, hardened criminals in their 40s and 50s, having made their money, are fine with the photographers. ‘When they appear at court, they’ll wave, smile and practically pose for the camera,’ he says. It’s the kids 15 or 16 who are trying to impress. I’ve seen what they do, so I know what they are capable of. They are the ones who are more likely to shoot you. They’d do it to prove they’re not afraid of anyone, as of to say: “Look at me. I’ve just shot a photographer.”