Bio

It was in 1994 that my evolutionary development as a photographer started when first coming across the work of photographer Ansel Adams. It was his imagery that sparked the flame of interest in me developing a portfolio to present to a University for a college placement. My inspiration in photography since then has come from the philosophy and vision of Adams and his San Francisco Bay area colleagues in the 1930’s known as “Group f/64, named after the smallest aperture of a camera lens, allowing for the greatest depth of field and overall sharpness of an image. It was my discovery of this aesthetic movement thatcharted the course of the rest of my photographic career. After completing an Honours degree in Visual Communications, and a brief spell as a Graphic Designer, I returned back to my native home town of Westport, Co. Mayo, Ireland in 2000 to start my own photography business. My day to day working life encompasses many different genres of photography and crosses the worlds of both commercial and fine art. I have been fortunate enough on my photographic journey to have met and worked with masters of the craft such as Paul Caponigro and Ron Rosenstock whose work and knowledge have deepened my appreciation even more for the skills to which I have devoted my life. My travels to photograph in the footsteps of my heroes pushes me to continually pursue my own voice and capture my own vision with my camera. My passion in photography has always been rooted in nature and the environment. The natural landscape and the raw elements of the natural world are a constant source of wonder for me. I have always been fascinated by the ephemeral nature of light, and to seek out the places that resonate with me and capture the ethereal qualities of the light as it renders the landscape. The images I create are my homage to our natural environment. I am extremely proud to have won numerous national and international awards for my work, most notably from the Federation of European Professional Photographers (FEP). I was awarded the bronze camera award in the landscape category for two of my images from Zabriskie Point. I have also been awarded “Photographer of the Year” by my national professional body, The Irish Professional Photographers & Videographers Association (IPPVA) of which I am an associate member. I have been recognised for my monochrome work by The Black & White Spider Awards and was a First Place category winner in 2015. My press photographs have been published worldwide and regularly feature on the front pages of the national newspapers in Ireland. I continue to exhibit prints in solo and group exhibitions of my personal photographic projects. I am also a member of The Press Photographers Association of Ireland (PPAI) and an Associate Member of the Irish Professional Photographers and Videographers Association (AIPPVA). I am also a photography educator and lead landscape photography workshops for an Irish based company called Explore Light. www.explorelight.com. In 2018 I was invited back by my Alma Mater, Letterkenny Institute Of Technology as a guest speaker for their annual Design, Innovation, Creative Media & Enterprise Conference (DICE18). My area of artistic expression is in the crafting of the black and white image, either in the digital lightroom or the analogue darkroom. For me working in the monochromatic scale brings the viewer straight to the soul of the landscape. It is my goal to create artistic, exploratory and narrative experiences for the viewer, one that will awaken within the viewer an emotional affinity and appreciation of our environment and of the world we share.