Jim Eccles joined the Staff of the Sligo Champion in 1953. He retired as Staff Photographer in 1995. Many well deserved tributes were paid to him at that time. This exhibition of photographs is designed as a further tribute. Aptly titled Flashback it is selected from the thousands of photographs taken by Jim during his career.

The exhibition also includes a sampling of his earlier studio work and some very recent shots of Sligo.

Jim Eccles trained as a professional photographer in the Leslie Stuart Studio in Derry and moved to Sligo in the late Forties where he set up his own Photographic Studio at 40 Wolfe Tone Street, prior to joining the staff of The Sligo Champion.

The selection of this exhibition of his work was done mainly from the Archives of Champion Publications. Several hundred images were selected by Jim Eccles. In arriving at the final selection with Jim we at Sligo Art Gallery took the view that a book of Jim Eccles photographs should be published. With this in mind we put aside some marvellous photographs which we felt would be more appropriate to this book. If you feel there are pieces missing from this exhibition do not make your final judgement until you see the book which at this time awaits the support of a suitable sponsor.

Jim's Studio work was, we felt, very important. It is most appropriate that this exhibition should reflect this period in the artists career. He continued with his studio work at the Champion Studio over the years and with the advent of television he supplied many local news items to RTE.

In more recent years Jim has photographed artworks for various catalogues and art publications. Many plates in the recent publication of Basil Blackshaws work stem from Jim's lens as do most of the works in the Yeats and Contemporaries catalogue published in 1989. All the photographs reproduced in Sligo Art Gallerys Annual Iontas Catalogues were taken by Jim Fccles.

I have been aware of Jim Eccles since the early Fifties. I came to know him better through my work as Administrator at Sligo Art Gallery. I admire his energy, enthusiasm and dedication to the task.

It has been a pleasure to work with him and I look forward to working with him in the future on gallery publications, that is of course if he has time, as he seems, from my view point to be busier than ever.

All at Sligo Art Gallery wish him well.

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