Garter Lane Arts Centre presents an exhibition of photographic works by Albert Walsh which examines how traditional and emerging ways of being coexist in contemporary Irish society.

Vitrolite, an opaque pigmented fire-toughened glass, was widely used as cladding for shopfronts, beginning during the Art Deco period and continuing until the late 1950s. Hogan Hairdressers, established in Waterford in the mid-1950s, is a distinct example of a Vitrolite shopfront from that decade. Behind the Vitrolite Shopfront invites the viewer beyond this façade and into a world where traditional practices have changed very little- a glimpse of how a little piece of Americana was brought to 1950s Waterford. This series of photographic works documents how business traditions have remained steadfast in the face of societal and economic pressures for change and how consistent change renders the once mainstream unconventional.

Albert Walsh has been Head of the Department of Art & Design Education in Crawford College of Art & Design since 1997.