NEW COLLECTION: Dingle & the Blasket Islands 2022
Once again, I was drawn back to the beautiful coastline of Dingle this year. The shoot consisted of three days along the peninsula and two days out on the Great Blasket Island. And while I’ve lost count of the number of times that I've photographed Dingle, there is somehow a different canvas waiting for me each time, and this is mainly due to Ireland's ever-changing weather. You might remember that my last Blasket Islands collection had a dark and almost melancholy quality to it and that’s because I was under a constant blanket of mist on that shoot, however, this year, the weather was a little less forbidding with some blue skies waiting for me.
But even without the mist, there always seems to be a haunted atmosphere to the Great Blasket Island, which is uninhabited except for its caretakers, Claire and Brock, and this adds an extra depth to the landscape. And I don’t know whether it's the island’s history of storytelling or actually staying in Peig Sayers’s cottage, but there’s something about this island that always inspires me as an artist. And walking across the spine of the Great Blasket Island has to be one of Ireland’s most breathtaking journeys.
For those of you who are familiar with my work, you’ll know that Coumeenole is my favourite place to photograph, and that is why I’ll never visit Dingle without leaving my footprints on this beach. And some of you may be wondering: why does he need another photograph of Coumeenole? But I think that’s like asking why Monet painted so many water lilies (not that I’m comparing myself to Monet, but you get my point). Coumeenole inspires me and she never lets me down. She’s always there waiting for me, ready to parade her endless beauty before my lens. Coumeenole Beach is to me what Yosemite Valley was to Ansel Adams – her shores will forever be my favourite muse.
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