I DISCOVERED THE EVENT IN MAY 2016
THE LEGACY CATALOG
* In The Year 2008
* In The Year 2011
* In The Year 2017
* Henrietta Back In 2010
I Got an Escort to Waterford As My Equipment Was Too Bulky
(Photographed using the Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 G OSS II Macro)
Tomorrow, I set off for Waterford to spend four full days documenting the city’s evolving built environment—with a sharp focus on the massive collection of murals spanning the historic core and outer terraces.
- After extensive field testing today with my Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 G OSS II Macro, both teleconverters, and a compact fill flash, I finally settled on my primary kit. The headline change? I have benched the ultra-fast zooms in favour of a lightweight, highly versatile f/4 setup anchored by the Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS and the FE 70-200mm f/4 G II.
Body Selection: Sony α7R VI over the α1 II
- Battery Efficiency & Stamina: Selecting the α7R VI as my primary archive body comes down to power management. On long, multi-mile walking routes across urban terrain, its processing engine stretches the NP-FZ100 battery capacity significantly further than the power-hungry dual-engine architecture of the α1 II during continuous EVF live-viewing.
- Sensor Synergy: Paired with resolving optics, the 61MP+ sensor delivers incredible cropping flexibility and fine detail retrieval—essential for archiving paint stroke textures, subtle wall patina, and artist signatures.
The Backup: Leica Q3
The Leica Q3 will serve as my lightweight 28mm secondary body. It continues to perform flawlessly in the field following recent firmware revisions. While Leica released another update recently, I am holding off on installing any new firmware until I return home from Waterford to avoid introducing unverified variables mid-assignment.
The Lens Dilemma: Why I Chose f/4 Speed
Initially, I considered carrying the Sony FE 28-70mm f/2 GM or pairing a mid-telephoto with a dedicated 100mm macro. However, carrying an f/2 zoom weighing nearly 920 grams alongside secondary optics on foot for four consecutive days introduces unnecessary physical drag.
Since flat mural documentation relies on stopping down to f/5.6 or f/8 to ensure corner-to-corner plane-of-focus sharpness, the light-gathering capability of an f/2 aperture is redundant. Swapping to the FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS provides several distinct tactical advantages:
- Weight & Ergonomics: At 663 grams, the 24-105mm f/4 saves roughly a third of a kilogram directly on the camera body, dramatically reducing shoulder fatigue over a multi-day shoot.
- Expanded Framing Range: Standardising at 24mm on the wide end gives an extra 10 degrees of field of view compared to 28mm, allowing me to frame medium-scale building facades in narrow medieval laneways without constantly swapping lenses. Meanwhile, the 105mm reach comfortably captures upper-story wall details on the fly.
- Flash Integration: Paired with the compact 120g Godox iT30 TTL flash mounted natively on the α7R VI, shooting at f/4 between ISO 100 and 400 provides plenty of latitude for the flash tube to lift harsh overhead gable shadows without working near its thermal limits.
Streamlined 3-Lens Kit
Sony FE 16-35mm (or 12-24mm)
- Assignment Role: Ultra-Wide Specialty. Essential for multi-story gable walls in tight, narrow lanes (such as Thomas Hill or Colbeck Street) to prevent severe keystoning.
- Weight: Lightweight.
Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS
- Assignment Role: Primary Workhorse. Handles approximately 85% of all mural compositions, streetscapes, and mid-range architectural details.
- Weight: 663g.
Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 G II Macro
- Assignment Role: High Detail & Telephoto. Covers elevated murals, isolated artist signatures, and fine paint textures.
- Weight: ~795g.
Teleconverter Integration: SEL14TC & SEL20TC
I am also packing the Sony 1.4x (SEL14TC) and 2.0x (SEL20TC) teleconverters. While they cannot be mounted on wide or standard zooms due to rear-element clearance restrictions, they fit the FE 70-200mm f/4 G II Macro seamlessly:
- Extended Reach: Converting the 70-200mm into a 98-280mm $f/5.6$ or a 140-400mm $f/8$ (with up to 1:1 full macro capability) allows me to isolate high-wall details on three-story gables without carrying dedicated heavy glass.
- Minimal Bulk: At ~170g and ~207g respectively, both extenders slip into a coat pocket with virtually no weight penalty.
- Flash Adjustments: Because the extenders reduce maximum effective aperture, bumping the base ISO to 400–800 when using the teleconverters preserves recycle times and conserves the Godox iT30's battery life.
History of the Event
Origins (2014–2015): Founded by Edel Tobin under The Walls Project CLG, the initiative launched to address urban decay and dereliction in Waterford following the post 2008 economic crash. The goal was to use public art as a catalyst for urban regeneration.
Expansion: Starting as a small local paint jam, it quickly scaled into a multi-day festival every August. By 2021, the festival encompassed county towns like Tramore, An Rinn, and Tallow alongside its urban city core.
Current Scale: The festival now spans 10 days, drawing over 40 to 70 national and international artists each year and hosting live painting, workshops, guided tours, and film screenings.
Local & International Impact
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Local Success:
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Urban Renewal: Converted weather-worn, blank gables and derelict industrial walls into an open-air gallery, particularly revitalizing O'Connell Street, The Glen, and the Cultural Quarter.
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Community Pride: Replaced non-commissioned tagging with protected artworks while offering youth graffiti workshops, public talks, and family street parties.
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Economic Footfall: Drives year-round domestic foot traffic, benefiting local hospitality, cafes, and retail through self-guided audio/digital map trails.
International Success:
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Global Network: Partnered with Street Art Cities, placing Waterford on the global street art map alongside major urban hubs like Berlin, Melbourne, and Bogota.
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Artist Prestige: Attracts world-renowned talent (Fintan Magee, Telmo Miel, VILE, Dan Kitchener), making it one of Western Europe's premier mural festivals.
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Cultural Exchange: Acts as a key platform for Irish artists to collaborate directly with global muralists, raising the profile of Irish street art internationally.
The 2026 lineup for Waterford Walls features a strong, diverse mix of major international heavyweights alongside a substantial domestic contingent.
International Artists
Zabou (France)
- Style & Career: Based in London, Zabou is internationally renowned for her striking, high-contrast figurative realism. She uses spray paint to blend portraits of real, expressive humans with bold color fields and graphic components.
- Key Visuals: Highly detailed portraits featuring dramatic side-lighting and emotional intensity.
VILE (Portugal)
- Style & Career: Rodrigo Miguel (VILE) is famous for his mind-bending 3D transparent/cut-out graffiti technique. Using precise shading, stencil work, and perspective tricks, he renders his name as if it were carved directly through solid concrete walls, revealing the empty background space behind them.
TELMO MIEL (Netherlands)
- Style & Career: The artistic duo Telmo Pieper and Miel Krutzmann are globally celebrated for their large-scale surrealist photo-realism. They fuse layered imagery, overlapping human forms, and dreamlike elements into a single cohesive piece.
MR CENZ (UK)
- Style & Career: A staple of the London street scene since 1988, Mr Cenz creates distinctive futuristic female portraits. His signature aesthetic blends classic graffiti lettering, photorealistic faces, neon hues, and abstract translucent flow-lines.
MR.DHEO (Portugal)
- Style & Career: Self-taught artist known for hyper-realistic narrative portraiture. His work often tackles political commentary, pop culture, and social critique with crisp lines and dramatic contrasts.
Fintan Magee (Australia)
- Style & Career: Frequently referred to as "the Australian Banksy," Magee is a world-class muralist whose work explores social issues, climate change, migration, and the working class.
- Key Visuals: Large, painterly figures rendered with soft light, atmospheric texture, and water reflections.
Dan Kitchener / DANK (UK)
- Style & Career: DANK is legendary for his atmospheric cinematic street scenes, particularly rainy, neon-soaked nightscapes of Tokyo, Hong Kong, and London.
- Key Visuals: Wet pavement reflections, glowing light blurs, and dramatic rain effects rendered with incredible speed using spray paint.
L7MATRIX (France/Brazil)
- Style & Career: Known for combining raw graffiti lettering with fine-art realism. His most famous subjects are hyper-vibrant, exploding birds and animals that seem to dissolve into dynamic splatters, lines, and movement.
Fio Silva (Argentina)
- Style & Career: Dynamic, organic murals featuring wild birds, flora, and fauna. Her style relies on heavy black line work, bold color blocking, and sweeping lines that flow along the architecture of the wall.
DAN FERRER (Spain)
- Style & Career: Ferrer’s work blends figurative realism with allegory and childhood symbolism. He often depicts larger-than-life children breaking through limitations or exploring dream worlds.
CONSE (Spain)
- Style & Career: Master of hyper-realism and portraiture. He focuses heavily on capturing subtle skin textures, deep expressions, and intimate human moments on massive scales.
SPEKER (Italy) & SILYME (Italy)
- Style & Career: Traditional graffiti writers turned muralists who specialize in technical wildstyle lettering, sharp geometric angles, dynamic color gradients, and complex letter construction.
NOL (Netherlands)
- Style & Career: Distinctive for his whimsical, retro-cartoon character designs. NOL uses bold black outlines, playful narrative themes, and bright primary colors.
ADOR (France)
- Style & Career: Illustrative, satirical, and story-driven. ADOR creates imaginary worlds populated by quirky, long-nosed humanoid characters engaged in chaotic or humorous scenarios.
KMG (Scotland)
- Style & Career: Illustrative street artist known for her cheeky, humorous, and bold character-based work that frequently pokes fun at modern society and pop culture.
WRN (Brazil) & MARIE (Brazil)
- Style & Career: Bringing South American tropical street aesthetics, rich patterns, and vibrant color palettes rooted in Brazilian urban culture.
Irish & Northern Irish Artists
DAN LEO (Ireland)
- Style & Career: One of Ireland's most recognizable street artists. Dan Leo's work is characterized by heavy black outlines, sharp geometric partitioning, and vibrant graphic depictions of animals and wildlife.
ROB HILKEN (Northern Ireland)
- Style & Career: Belfast-based artist and curator whose work focuses on geometric abstraction, color field theory, and structural symmetry that interacts with urban architecture.
SHANE HA (Ireland)
- Style & Career: Galway-born visual artist (often signing as Torc_art) whose style blends illustrative geometry, Celtic knotwork elements, and modern pop-surrealist characters.
RASK (Ireland)
- Style & Career: A veteran of the Irish graffiti scene, Rask is renowned for his technical prowess in classic lettering, complex wildstyle, and large-scale collaborative pieces.
SOAK (Ireland)
- Style & Career: Longstanding Irish writer and muralist known for versatile lettering, character design, and heavy involvement in the grassroots national graffiti scene.
STAYLO (Ireland)
- Style & Career: Focuses on contemporary lettering, bold color choices, and clean vector-like spray execution across urban landscapes.
MUL (UK/Ireland)
- Style & Career: Known for the ubiquitous "Heart" and continuous-line characters, MUL focuses on rapid, high-impact graphic iconography that interacts playfully with urban infrastructure.
OMIM (Ireland), NOVICE (Ireland), RO (Ireland), NIALLOL (Ireland), LAIDBACK (Ireland)
- Style & Career: Core contributors to the evolving Irish street art circuit. Their styles range from raw freehand graffiti and calligraffiti to contemporary character-driven compositions.
EMBER (Ireland), KONE (Ireland), KAROL (Ireland), HMC (Ireland), ANDYMC (Ireland)
- Style & Career: Represents a mix of established writers and emerging Irish crews. Expect high-energy lettering, sharp fill-ins, and complex color schemes designed to pop against weather-worn stone and concrete.
Ailbhe Larsen (Ireland)
- Style & Career: Illustrative artist whose work leans toward fine-art storytelling, fine linework, and soft, organic motifs that contrast sharply with raw urban brickwork.
Railway Stations
* Clontarf Railway Station
* Docklands Railway Station
* Malahide Railway Station
Examples Of Waterford Walls Murals
