My friend, distant cousin and co-conspirator Barry Kavanagh has seen fit to use my portrait of him – made on the fly one night in Dublin’s Long Hall pub, on the cover of the new Dacianos album, Fables for Another Time.
Read More »Album cover for Dacianos: Fables for Another Time
A recent addition to Dublin’s low-rise skyline and spanning the Irish capital’s River Liffey, the harp-like silhouette of Santiago Caletrava’s Samuel Beckett Bridge is a technical marvel bordering in Celtic Kitsch. These qualities attracted me and my camera – even to the point of doing long picture exposures on cold snowy nights. It’s paid off, with several of my images of the bridge now being used by Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, for a Lyric FM CD compilation of Irish harp music.
Age and youth – walker and graffiti door on Sloterkade, Amsterdam.
Age and youth – walking aid and graffiti door on Sloterkade, Amsterdam. This scene has been fascinating me for months. The stairs, with the hint of a white rail, an elderly person’s walking aid locked to the wall, a garage door covered in unintelligible graffiti, the growth of the green plant. The blue of some of the spraypaint matches the walker, while the word ‘suicide’ appears on the glass above. The word again, again and again.
Read More »Age and youth
Herbs in the window of abandoned Herbalist Shop
An abandoned herbalist’s shop in Rethymno, Crete. It was owned, apparently, by Panajiotis and or Dimitrios Kontogianis – at least that’s what it says on the packets of dried herbs in the window. Other fragments of clues – a faded, stained photograph of the proprieter, leftover belongings. What happened here? Where did they go?
This imag of a “Ribbed Iceberg”, in Kangerdlussuaq Fjord, East Greenland, from on board the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise in 2009, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Extreme Environment competition, run by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, in Hobart, Australia.
Read More »Extreme Environment Photographic Competition Shortlist
Bust of Lenin in Barentsburg, Svalbard
I am staring at a forest, a painting of a forest. A door opens in the forest, and two men climb out. They close the door, then walk away.
The forest, or rather the painting of a forest, is in the Russian coal-mining town of Barentsburg, about 1200km from the North Pole, one of three inhabited settlements in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
For a couple of years now, actress and filmmaker Martha Van Der Bly and myself have been threatening to team up and work on a photographic project together. Great idea, but hindered by our never being in the same location for more than five minutes. Back in April, we spent two Sunday afternoons developing some ideas…
I don’t doubt that I often make pictures of strange objects – but it’s a little bizarre to see one’s image turn up in a book like Christopher Salyers’ Vending Machines: Coined Consumerism, published by Mark Batty.
Bull Island is a new world, less than 200 years old. Grown from a mere sandback after Captain William Bligh (of the Bounty) made his 1801 proposal to stop the silting of the Liffey by constructing of the Bull Wall, the island is today a UNESCO biosphere reserve – a protected area that by definition is supposed to demonstrate a balanced relationship between man and nature.
Read More »The Things I Found On Bull Island
This story was first posted as a blog on the Greenpeace Climate blog in August 2009 – while I was on board the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, off the coast of Greenland as part of a four month expedition investigating climate impacts in the Arctic.
There is something unnerving about watching reality bend before one’s eyes. There is what one “knows” to be true, and that which
one can see through a telephoto lens or binoculars – with Fata Morgana, the two are difficult to reconcile. Something is happening on the
horizon. Icebergs twist and change shape, move, disappear, elongate. Islands rise from the sea. The earth warps.
Im very pleased to announce that the Irish Labour Party has used my “Solar Power vs Fossil Fuels” image for the cover of its new Energy Revolution policy paper.
Read More »The Energy Revolution: Irish Labour Party
I’m very, very pleased. Ecstatic! “Solar Energy Versus Fossil Fuel” has received a “Highly Commended” in the “Changing Climates” category at the 2009 Environmental Photographer of the Year competition.
Read More »Climate change: Environmental Photographer of the Year commendation
I was fortunate enough to be in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland on June 21st 2009- midsummer’s day, when Greenland celebrates its National Day. There was further cause for celebration – following a referendum last year, Greenland has decided on ‘self governance’ and on June 21st moved from ‘home rule’ to a new state of autonomy from Denmark. Here’s some of my images…
Just heard from my old pal Steve Mack, leader singer of That Petrol Emotion, who has just featured my photographs of their Electric Picnic 2008 performance on the band’s website. It’s all part of the excitement building around their upcoming performance at Oxegen 2009.
Well, the nice people at Photoshelter have featured my website and my hourglass dolphin image on their front page for all of June! Amazing… (under the ‘images’ tab on the frontpage slideshow). Photoshelter reckon that 40,000 photographers use their service, so it’s very cool for them to be pushing my work. I feel very honoured – thanks to everyone at Photoshelter…
Read More »Hourglass dolphin and my website featured on Photoshelter
My photograph (above) showing the winter sun setting behind Poolbeg Generating Station, has been chosen for the National Union of Journalists Photography Matters exhibition, opening in London, UK on May 18th 2009.
Here’s some pages from Photographer magazine, Ukraine/Russia Jan-Feb 2009 featuring my Iceberg images from trips as blogger and press officer to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica on board the Greenpeace ship Esperanza in 2007 and 2008, to find the Japanese whaling fleet. The text is in Russian.
Read More »My Iceberg photographs in Ukraine/Russia Photographer Magazine
Believe it or not, some of my photographs of New Zealand were used in in Series 2 of the HBO TV Series Flight of the Conchords – as the rather misguided New Zealand tourism posters on the wall of Deputy Cultural Attache Murray Hewitt’s office. You can see the posters and my images here…
Ok, it helps if you read Spanish for this one – I’ve had an article published in the Spanish Lonely Planet magazine, thanks to Luis at Granangular. It’s based on my book, Haunted Dublin, published in October 2008. The article is basically a summary of many of the things in the book, with tales of black dogs, phantom cats, headless horsemen – even bodiless heads – and the murderous black pig that stalked the streets around Christchurch cathedral (above).
Read More »Haunted Dublin article in Lonely Planet Spain magazine