“Love Is Bigger...” Celebrating Dublin’s Vibrant Youth and LGBTQ Community

U2 thinks big. They’re stadium rockers, after all, driven by music and message, so it’s a pleasant surprise to learn that one of the ways they are promoting their latest album, Songs of Experience, is by giving independent artists free rein to interpret their songs. Georgian-born Tatia Pilieva created a short film around “You’re the Best Thing about Me,” and today, David Mushegain’s take on “Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way” is released, offering an intimate glimpse of a close-knit bunch of Dublin’s youth.

The song’s reference to Killiney Bay struck a chord with Mushegain, who has been a Hibernophile since the ’90s, when he and a friend hitchhiked across Ireland and spent a winter busking in the capital, which he describes as “trippy. Although Ireland is a place everybody knows,” the photographer notes, “it’s still somewhat removed.” About seven years ago, Mushegain returned to Dublin while touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers (he’s the band’s photographer). It’s then that he started to document a group of kids he met on the street, taking their portraits right where he found them, against a white ground. His “Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way” video is a kinetic extension of that project.

“I took [the lyrics] really literally,” explains the photographer. “ ‘Love is bigger than anything in its way’ is such a strong message, especially when the world is in such turmoil. I think the message is be yourself, but also have some fun in life and expressing yourself.” Filmed with a cinema camera and no crew—because an entourage takes away from the one-on-one intimacy of interactions, explains Mushegain—the director was familiar with about half of the cast prior to filming. Many, but not all, of the people who appear in the video are LGBTQ. However they identify, all are friends or family to each other, and all combat the gray skies with their flamboyant and expressive style. “Part of the idea that I wanted to convey,” the photographer says, “is that all of them are part of that community, that it’s not exclusionary.”

Mushegain admits to having become “obsessed” with Dublin street fashion, which reached its highest expression, he believes, during the recession. What makes it so memorable, explains Mushegain, is that the “kids” there emulate styles and fashions that they see around the world—or on Rihanna—with whatever they can get their hands on locally, resulting in “cosmic concoctions—heavy makeup, and bold colors with gold chain accessories and hoop earrings, amazing mixes of weird jewelry and clothes that are just supercool.” “You don’t care about what other people think anymore,” says a teenager at the opening of the video. “It’s about kind of what you feel about yourself and what you kind of want to bring to the world.”

Mushegain’s fascination with his subjects isn’t just about the surface, though. This world traveler is as attracted to their vibe as he is their style. “There’s a certain genuineness to people [in Dublin] that you don’t necessarily see in bigger cities these days. The kids want to be involved in stuff, and they’re actually enthusiastic and excited about it in kind of a humble way. I love that. These kids have such good energy and I wanted the viewers to feel that.”

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