Earlier this month saw the We Are Belfast exhibition, displaying photos submitted online to the We Are Belfast photography project. Here’s the lowdown:
We are Belfast is an exciting new project to create an online image wall made up of photographs of people from Belfast, or places you love in the city. The images will then be used to create an installation at a city centre art exhibition hosted by the red:collective and Redeemer Central on Monday 7th – Wednesday 9th June 2010 @ The Red Barn gallery in Belfast. Do you live in Belfast? Were you born here but now live somewhere else? Want to be part of a new and exciting art project? Then simply upload an image of yourself or a place in Belfast that you love. You don’t have to be great photographer just someone who loves Belfast.
Well I couldn’t resist submitting a photo, so I uploaded the above photo that I took in Muriel’s Cafe Bar on Church Lane, Belfast. Keith Belfast was nice enough to take me there when we met up for a drink and I really fell in love with its stylish, 1920′s interior and rather strange display of old hats. According to this Belfast Telegraph review, this is in homage to its previous resident:
Muriel, a milliner and, according to the staff, a ‘Madame’ of certain repute. Damask drapes, chandeliers, velvet seating and dark walls, adorned with silver-framed mirrors, are the order of the day, and there is an open fire upstairs for those cosy, intimate moments.
Downstairs, the piece de resistance is an array of hat paraphernalia that will no doubt grab your attention.
Grab my attention it did, and I couldn’t help taking a few photos despite the dark. Where else can you while away the afternoon in a bar where you can appreciate vintage hats and wash down a hearty meal with a ‘Milliner’s Mix’ cocktail? That, I explained when I submitted the photo, is just one of the many reasons I love Belfast. 
