Norman McCloskey

I am a professional photographer based in Kenmare, Co. Kerry which is a very beautiful part of Ireland. My passion for photographing the landscape here began in 1992 and I have been endlessly inspired by my surroundings ever since.

I studied photography at IADT and after graduating in 1995 I worked as an assistant in commercial photography and occasionally as a freelance photographer. I held various positions for over 18 years in a busy editorial sports photography agency during which time I relocated back to Kerry full time.

In 2011 I began work on my first book “ PARKLIGHT – Images of Killarney National Park “ which was published in 2013 and is now in it’s third reprint. It was awarded 2nd place in the International Photography Awards book category in 2014 and remains the only photography book published on Ireland’s premier national park.

That three year project led to the pursuit of my long held desire to concentrate fully on landscape photography and having had success at various commercial art shows and exhibitions I opened my own gallery in Kenmare in 2015.

The gallery is open all year round and is a hugely enjoyable and busy element of my life in with the landscape. It’s a great source of pride to have my work hanging on walls and corporate venues all over the world and it’s wonderful to meet so many different people who visit the gallery each year and see their reaction to our beautiful landscape here.

I am currently working on my next book project, focusing on the wild and rugged Beara Peninsula, due for publication in 2018.

My photography

Before photography, there was the landscape, there was light and a young man who was quite comfortable with solitude in beautiful places. Experiencing all this looking through a viewfinder and capturing it in my mind’s eye was a very natural step to take. My instant passion for photography has only ever been rivalled by my love for music, but my inability to hold a note or play with any real panache sees photography win out as really the one thing that I’ve successful and truly adept at in life so far.

For over 25 years my time spent roaming the hills of Kerry and beyond in search of images that truly resonate with me has been immensely rewarding. Nothing beats standing alone on a mountain or by the sea at dawn with only the sounds of nature and the approaching light to compete for your attention. I strive to seek out new and familiar places and present images that entice a viewer to linger a little longer and ask a question and wonder.

I am forever inspired by and beguiled by the beautiful subtleties that exist in the ever changing light that falls on this land at the edge of Europe, bathed in the best extremes of weather the Atlantic Ocean brings in.

I will return multiple times over weeks and even years to the same location, fine tuning my vision for an image which speaks to me first of all and if successful this will carry across to the viewer also.

Having learned my craft with film and in the darkroom I now primarily use digital cameras to create most of my work, but this hasn’t changed my approach to my photography, the way I see the landscape and how I present my work much at all. Yes it’s easy today to create an image from more than one and blend exposures, and stack your focus and push the limits of what photoshop can do.. but that holds little interest for me. I process my images with the lightest touch possible, preferring to draw out subtle tones and highlights in the same manner as a perfect print produced in the darkroom. The magic of a photograph for me still very much lies in the moment, a single moment and all the qualities and limitations of that moment that was present to create an image.

If you’ve got this far thank you !.. Please feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or questions on my work.