Photographer Giles Norman's latest exhibition coming to Kinsale

Giles Norman has produced a new book of images of the Irish countryside, and has an exhibition at the Kinsale Gallery at the end of September.

Giles Norman’s black and white photographs of the Irish landscape will be familiar to many. It is 25 years since he opened his first gallery in Kinsale, Co Cork, and he has released a book, Ireland — Timeless Images, to mark the occasion.

Norman moved to Kinsale at 15. In fifth year at Kinsale Vocational School, he took on the role of photographer for the class project on fishing. It would turn out to be a defining moment in his life. A gift of a camera from his parents on his 18th birthday sealed his fate.

The word ‘timeless’ is the central focus for Norman — his photographs all have that quality. “The way I work,” he says, “I try not to put anything modern in the photograph, unless I’m in a city like New York or somewhere. I like my photographs to be ageless. It is very hard to find a modern car or a modern building in any of my work because I purposely don’t want them in there.”

Norman identifies more as an artist than a photographer, in that it is the composition of a photograph that grabs his interest, rather than the mechanics of the camera. “There’s very little on the camera I would use,” he says. “I just open up the lens to what I see and worry about what I’m photographing and the composition. I have one simple rule — it’s more important what you leave out of the picture than what you put in it.”

While not overly concerned with the technical nuances of photography, Norman holds the icons of the street photography movement of the 1930s in high regard. Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau are two of his major influences. While Norman works primarily in the rural landscape, his style and approach are similar to those which define street photography. Rather than arranging a posed photograph or waiting with a tripod for a shot to come together, Norman uses a handheld camera and wanders through the countryside. Like Cartier-Bresson and Doisneau, he aspires to capture a ‘decisive moment’ — the exact perfect timing of a photograph.

Norman’s catalogue of work is proof of his impeccable timing. It is the break of a wave or the level of a setting sun that is the making of a photograph. He often takes a week to immerse himself in a pocket of the countryside, walking the land in search of the decisive moment.

Cheeky animals appear in a few of Norman’s photographs and calendars. His sense of humour comes through in these portraits. He captures cattle peeping around corners or an ass grinning, showing off a fine set of teeth.

“The ass was taken in Union Hall in Glandore,” says Norman. “I was just wandering around and I saw him in a field. I got in and he wouldn’t let me out again. Every time I climbed out he went for me, I had to hide behind a tree and then climb over a fence. Had I been a trained landscape photographer I would have had the camera on a tripod and been waiting hours for the one — for the sun to get into the right position — but I don’t work like that.”

* An exhibition of Giles Norman photography will run at the Kinsale Gallery, Sep 26-29. Ireland — Timeless Images is available in bookshops and from www.gilesnorman.com