The Doors of the World

Nowadays, the distinction between windows and doors has largely eroded; one-eyed peepholes have evolved into sliding plates of shatterproof glass. Our houses always tend to have many more windows than doors. TVs, computers, books, newspapers and magazines might be considered as windows of a sort.

Still, a door implies some kind of passage; a journey, perhaps - a becoming. Something changes when you walk through a door. Nothing changes when you’re merely looking through a window. God lives in a great room with many windows and no doors.

Back (in the early 70’s) when we still could afford magazines, I happened across a full page travel ad that featured pictures of thirty-six doors. At the bottom, “The Doors of Dublin” in Celtic font had been inserted. Within days, I noticed the same collage, enlarged to poster size, at various shops in and around New York City. (If I remember correctly, it was right around St. Patrick’s Day.) And that wasn’t the end of it.

Eventually, similar formats popped up all over, each customized to reflect a particular community or region. Even our town came out with its own version.

The concept died rather quickly. “The Doors of Summit” did not sell very well, here or anywhere. I heard some local residents grousing about their doors having been excluded.

The long and the short of it - as to the lasting impact it had on me personally – is that whenever I find myself taking pictures in any locale, either consciously or unconsciously, I am invariably drawn to focus on doors and doorways.

Please indulge me in this. My approach is somewhat different from Bob Fearon’s. Bob was the originator of the ‘Doors’ concept. Not all my pictures were taken on the same street; or in the same place even. (As I understand it, all of these now-famous Dublin poster portals can be found on the Georgian town houses just south of the Liffey.) I thought I’d mix it up a bit – compare and contrast – the portals on four different continents. Doors actually are something that we all have in common in this crazy world that seems forever trying to divide us.

Google “The Doors of Dublin” and you will see the original poster along with the story behind it.