February 21, 2008
The Cow's Lick
The mud packs are to die for…advert for beauty parlour in a farmyard on the Roscommon side of Athlone.
Somewhere in Africa, a tribesman takes time from herding cattle in the Savannah to take a break. He picks up a copy of National Geographic and begins flicking through it. He starts to read, in ever-growing amazement, an article on the beauty habits of the Irish – bizarre hair straightening rituals to ruthlessly remove any trace of a genetically-bestowed curl, amazing tales of people smearing themselves in orange dye or baking themselves in cabinets to simulate a suntan, the wearing of outfits designed for non-beer swilling species. What a strange place, he thinks.
The service industry in Ireland, of which the beauty industry is a sweet-smelling part, is one of the rapidly growing sectors of the Irish economy. There isn’t a square inch of your body that some-one can’t charge 150 euro an hour to reshape, recolour, defoliate or just disguise. It’s just as well, since other traditional industries are shrinking rapidly, none more so than farming. Many farmers have already made the transition to part-time farming, combining a day job in an office, factory or shop, with feeding cattle when they get home. I don’t know how many farmers combine hairdressing with farming, but I’d like to think that their cattle or sheep are the best coiffed animals in the parish. It’s the least that you’d expect.
Camera=40D, lens = Sigma 10-20mm@10mm, aperture=f6.3, speed=1/320 sec, ISO=320.
The first image in the Transitions series
brideswell, athlone, roscommon, ireland, westmeath, irishblogs, photoblogs, photography, photographs, pictures, galwayblogs, blog, monasset, north atlantic skyline, john smyth, Canon, 40D, february, 2008
Posted by monasset at February 21, 2008 08:32 PM