The Sunday Times

As with slow food, there’s a lot to be said for slow photography. Saturated by the sleek, glossy imagery of consumption, we are often unable nowadays to appreciate many of the things that make a difference to the quality of our lives: the unspectacular, utilitarian and occasionally ugly infrastructure that makes living in this time and place so comfortable. That is the remarkable achievement of Place of Work, a modest exhibition of photographs by the architectural photographer Ros Kavanagh, on display in Dublin to mark the 175th anniversary of the Office of Public Works (OPW). It makes the neglected visible once more. When we think of the OPW, we immediately picture the official Ireland of great public buildings, monuments and places for which it is responsible, such as Dail Eireann, the Custom House, the Four Courts, Dublin Castle, the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Newgrange, Skellig Michael, the Rock of Cashel, Phoenix Park and St Stephen’s Green in Dublin.