Longford photographer's ‘Faces of Granard’ project captures special moments

A freelance portrait and landscape photographer based in Granard is looking forward to launching her ‘Faces of Granard’ project this week.

Originally from Temuco City in Chile, 28 years old Lissette Cárcamo has made Granard and Ireland her home since 2018 and she explained that the goal for her project is to showcase the beauty of Granard through her photography and to capture special moments for people.

Married to Croatian man, Zoran Salopek, and with two beautiful boys, Zvonimir and Zoran, Lissette says that ‘Faces of Granard’ features photos of fifty individuals who have lived in or worked in the area for many years.

“These people have unique stories and experiences, and have made contributions to the community or are simply known for the years they have lived in the town. I want to give them the recognition they deserve.”

Lissette will be publishing all the photos, along with a short profile of each of those pictured, on her Facebook page ‘Photography by Lissette Carcamo’ on Wednesday, February 1.

Lissette said it was an honour for her to lead the project, and she was delighted that people placed their trust in her as many of them don't even have a social media presence but they were willing to participate.

Having studied nutrition and dietetics at university before she left it behind to pursue ‘her passion’ engineering in logistics and management, Lissette outlined that her journey into photography began in April of 2022 when she bought her first camera ever, and decided to use ‘her natural flair’.

When her husband got the opportunity to come to work here in Ireland, Lissette joined him in August 2018.

She said, “When Covid started I hadn’t learned as much English as I would have liked. I studied by myself at home, while also learning Croatian. I took some lessons in English two years ago and this helped me improve.

“I worked at Lus na Gréine, the Family Resource Centre running the Parent & Toddler group programme for six months. I started out being part of the group. I have since got a new job in which I'm actually working full time from home for Samsung Ireland.”

Describing herself as ‘a people person who loves the connection with the community and older people’, Lissette said her ‘Faces of Granard’ project was conceived from a desire to find out what local people had to say about their lives, experiences and histories.

“I got invited to drink tea in some of their houses or workplaces after we finished the portrait photo and that meant a lot to me,” she concluded.