Ireland Photography Prints — Dublin & Kerry
Ireland has two speeds: the city and the coast. Dublin's pubs where everyone knows each other's name. The Dingle Peninsula where the Atlantic throws itself at the rocks and nobody seems particularly bothered. Both collections were shot on one camera, one lens. The constraint felt most right here — Ireland rewards patience.
Limited edition · Signed & numbered · Edition of 50
I was visiting Dingle, County Kerry, and the history kept stopping me in my tracks. Neolithic villages. The story of Blasket Island. And then this place.
Gallarus Oratory is a dry-stone church on the Dingle Peninsula, built somewhere around the 8th or 9th century. It has a corbelled roof shaped like an upturned boat and has stood completely intact ever since. No mortar. No restoration. Just stone, fitted perfectly against stone, for over a thousand years.
I stood in front of it for a long time before I raised the camera. Some places ask you to slow down. This one insists on it.
One camera. One lens. One frame.
C Type Fuji Gloss
Professional colour paper from the Fuji Crystal archive range with a gloss finish, which accentuates the colour to give a punchy, rich feel. Gives your image more contrast, glossiness, and a punchier colour feel compared to Fuji Matt, while maintaining tonal properties and accurate reproduction.
"No mortar. No restoration. Just stone fitted perfectly against stone for over a thousand years. Some places ask you to slow down. This one insists on it." — Billy
I was wandering through Temple Bar in Dublin when I turned into Merchant's Arch. Every Dubliner walks through it without thinking. Every visitor stops. It's one of those passages that connects the old city to the river, stone walls damp from the rain, hanging baskets of flowers that have no business looking that cheerful in that light, and at the end of it, the Georgian buildings across the Liffey bright against a grey sky.
A figure was walking ahead of me, silhouetted against the light. X100V already up, zone focus already set, blam. The contrast between the dark tunnel and the city opening up beyond it does what Dublin does best: pulls you from one world into another without warning.
C Type Fuji Gloss
Professional colour paper from the Fuji Crystal archive range with a gloss finish, which accentuates the colour to give a punchy, rich feel. Gives your image more contrast, glossiness, and a punchier colour feel compared to Fuji Matt, while maintaining tonal properties and accurate reproduction.
"Dublin keeps doing this — you turn a corner, and the city changes completely. Merchant's Arch is one of those corners." — Billy
I was out alone in Dublin at night. Not going anywhere in particular, just walking into it. The dark, the neon, the way the city changes after midnight, when the people who are left are the ones who decided to stay out.
The taxis were queued along the street. Their lights were doing something to the wet road that I wanted to get closer to. Dark figures moving past, faces caught in pieces by whatever light was passing. The whole street had that feeling; anything could happen. Get in the cab, say "just drive", and see where the night goes.
One camera. One lens. I pressed the shutter.
That's the frame. The moment before the decision.
If you know Dublin after dark, you'll recognise it immediately. If you don't, you'll want to.
C Type Fuji Gloss
Professional colour paper from the Fuji Crystal archive range with a gloss finish, which accentuates the colour to give a punchy, rich feel. Gives your image more contrast, glossiness, and a punchier colour feel compared to Fuji Matt, while maintaining tonal properties and accurate reproduction.
"The moment before the decision. Get in the cab, say just drive, and see where the night goes." — Billy
Dublin, Temple Bar. You know how it is in another city, where the question of where to eat is always the question, and the obvious places are usually the wrong ones.
I found O'Shea's by wandering. Good staff, not pricey, exactly the kind of place Temple Bar pretends it doesn't have anymore. I was outside when I took this. The light on the frontage, the street behind me, the feeling of having found somewhere that's just right.
I make a point of going back every time I'm in Dublin. At least once. Usually more.
One camera, one lens. I raised it and pressed the shutter.
C Type Fuji Gloss
Professional colour paper from the Fuji Crystal archive range with a gloss finish, which accentuates the colour to give a punchy, rich feel. Gives your image more contrast, glossiness, and a punchier colour feel compared to Fuji Matt, while maintaining tonal properties and accurate reproduction.
"Good staff, not pricey, exactly the kind of place Temple Bar pretends it doesn't have anymore. I go back every time." — Billy
The vertical crop of Dublin Taxis at Night — the same frame, drawn tighter. More of the dark, less of the street. The neon closer.
I was out alone in Dublin at night. Not going anywhere in particular, just walking into it. The dark, the neon, the way the city changes after midnight, when the people who are left are the ones who decided to stay out.
The taxis were queued along the street. Their lights were doing something to the wet road that I wanted to get closer to. Dark figures moving past, faces caught in pieces by whatever light was passing. The whole street had that feeling; anything could happen. Get in the cab, say "just drive", and see where the night goes.
One camera. One lens. I pressed the shutter.
That's the frame. The moment before the decision.
If you know Dublin after dark, you'll recognise it immediately. If you don't, you'll want to.
C Type Fuji Gloss
Professional colour paper from the Fuji Crystal archive range with a gloss finish, which accentuates the colour to give a punchy, rich feel. Gives your image more contrast, glossiness, and a punchier colour feel compared to Fuji Matt, while maintaining tonal properties and accurate reproduction.
"The moment before the decision. Get in the cab, say just drive, and see where the night goes." — Billy
I was walking south from O'Connell Street, heading to the Palace Pub in Temple Bar. I crossed onto O'Connell Bridge and the Liffey opened up in front of me.
The sun was going down between the buildings, the whole river on fire, gold on the water, the city doing something it only does for about ninety seconds on certain evenings. Straight up with the camera, quick change of focus, blam. That was it. If I'd been reaching into a bag for a different lens, it would have been gone.
That's the whole argument for one camera and one lens in a single photograph. You don't get a second chance at ninety seconds of light.
C Type Fuji Gloss
Professional colour paper from the Fuji Crystal archive range with a gloss finish, which accentuates the colour to give a punchy, rich feel. Gives your image more contrast, glossiness, and a punchier colour feel compared to Fuji Matt, while maintaining tonal properties and accurate reproduction.
"Dublin hands you these moments and then takes them back almost immediately. I was in the right place because I wasn't carrying anything I didn't need." — Billy
The Dingle Pub, County Kerry:
I was inside a pub on a quiet street in Dingle, mid-afternoon. Not drinking yet, just standing in the dark of the interior, letting my eyes adjust. The door was open onto the street, and the light outside was doing what Kerry light does: making everything it touched look as if it were arranged on purpose.
A figure passed the doorway. I don't know who they were. They didn't know I was there. The green exit sign above the door, the dark wood, the bright rectangle of the outside world, it was all just there for about a second.
That's Dingle. You don't find the shot. You stand still long enough, and it walks past.
C Type Fuji Gloss
Professional colour paper from the Fuji Crystal archive range with a gloss finish, which accentuates the colour to give a punchy, rich feel. Gives your image more contrast, glossiness, and a punchier colour feel compared to Fuji Matt, while maintaining tonal properties and accurate reproduction.
"This pub is one of my favourite photographs. I didn't know why when I took it. I do now." — Billy