The National Surf Centre, Strandhill is pleased to present ‘Strandhill Surf Folk’ by local Sligo photographer Mark Capilitan, from May 29th to June 28th this year.
A Sligo native, now based in Strandhill, Mark began his photography career in the UK photographing Formula 1 and other motorsports, before moving back to Sligo to set up his own business, focusing primarily on wedding photography, which he has done since 2007.
Strandhill Surf Folk is very much a personal photographic project that Mark worked on for over a year. What started out as a way to photograph some of the people he surfs with, the
idea quickly spiraled into capturing the some of the historic Strandhill characters that started surfing here in the 1960s helping to put Strandhill on the surfing map for lots of international people who now call Sligo home and are included in this exhibition.
Mark says the more people he photographed, the more some were saying “you should get this guy or this guy”. From there it took on a life of its own to what you’ll see at the exhibition, which is 85 portraits ranging from the very first Strandhill surfers to the grom surf kids and everyone in between including whole families that surf.
Strandhill Surf Folk exhibition is supported by The Strand Bar, Shells Cafe, Voya, Mammy Johnston’s, Stoked and The Wetsuit Company, in association with the National Surf Centre.
Following completion of the exhibition, prints will be offered for sale for a nominal fee with 100% of proceeds going towards RNLI Sligo Bay Lifeboat Station.
