John & Joyce

• Photographer
  Deirdre Brennan
• Agency / Studio
  Redux Pictures

John Oliver Nugent poses for a portrait in the sun under the statue of James Joyce in North Earl Street in Dublin. John looked so dramatic, he would have been quite fitting in one of Joyce’s novel. After taking his photograph John told me that he started to grow a beard after his marriage broke down in 1982. He could not control his emotions so he let everything go including his hair. I think Joyce would have made plenty of material in John’s story to cast him as a character.

A graduate of The National College of Art and Design, Deirdre Brennan worked as a photojournalist and documentary photographer in New York for over a decade. On contract with The New York Times since 2000, her work has been published throughout the world in titles such as The New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, Portrait of Humanity, Stern, Marie Claire, Sports Illustrated, The Hollywood Reporter, Panorama, American Photography, Vice, Mother Jones, The Smithsonian and The London Sunday Times.