Kinsale photographer Giles Norman: 'I went off and learned the hard way'
Giles Norman outside his Kinsale gallery.
The theme of this year’s Kinsale Arts Weekend is the selkie, the mermaid figure from Irish folklore. The marine inspiration is a resonant one for Giles Norman, one of Ireland’s leading landscape photographers, whose work will be showcased in The Shape of Water exhibition taking place as part of the arts festival.
Norman’s gallery has been a mainstay in the harbour town for 35 years — his own photographic journey began at sea more than four decades ago when he was a fifth-year student at the vocational school in Kinsale.
“We did a project on fishing — I don’t know why but I was chosen to take the photographs and then we had to put them up all over the classroom. That got my interest going, as people liked them. I was 17 with not much other idea of what I was going to do with myself. Photography seemed as good as anything at the time.”
Norman got his first proper camera as an 18th birthday present and he was on his way. “It was a Pentax K1000 — I still have a version of it. I got rid of it many years ago and then I had an inclination that I wanted to get it back again so I went on eBay and I got one.”
While this demonstrates an affection for the traditional way of doing things, Norman says he doesn’t especially hanker after the pre-digital days.
“I switched to digital cameras in 2006 and there is no comparison with the old way. It is still the same process to a degree — you are still trying to find the best images. I miss the reproduction process, being on your own in the darkroom, it was a magical place. But I wouldn’t go back.”
Like the famous French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of his inspirations, Norman is completely self-taught.
“I went off and took photos and learned the hard way, making lots of mistakes and finding my own path. I got lucky, it was a time when you could work in a bar a couple of times a week, and that paid for the small shop I took in Kinsale. Things were easier then for people starting out.”
The sea has long served as a muse for Norman, and he has worked extensively on the west coast of Ireland, from Cork to Donegal. Dramatic seascapes are a constant favourite with customers of the gallery, although the bestseller is more humorous.
“We have one of a curious cow which is probably the bestseller. And that is one I took by accident, I was photographing an old farm building and it just popped its head around the corner. When I first took it, we didn’t even put it in the gallery but people just took to it.”
The Shape of Water exhibition allows Norman to highlight some of his less commercial, more artistic work. “I went into the catalogue and found a lot of the abstract work that I normally wouldn’t get to put into the gallery. It is a much closer look at the sea and what it can do, the effect the sea has on rocks, the formation of waves, things that make it abstract but interesting.”
Norman’s distinctive black-and-white images adorn the homes of many people here in Ireland and abroad. The photographer is grateful that he has made a career out of his passion.
“To be able to make a living from what you love doing is great. Maybe it is because I’ve stuck to the black and white and got a name for doing that…and that we have such a beautiful place to photograph also helps.”
Norman has also ventured beyond Irish shores, and landscape photography, in pursuit of his art. He describes himself as a street photographer lost in a rural landscape.
“I love going to the old big capital cities, Rome, New York and London and doing street photography, which is a different game again. But you still just go out with a camera. Some shots are good, some are bad, you gather what you can, and when you get back, see what you have.”
While he is also working on collections featuring his recent travels in Alaska and in the legendary Yosemite National Park in the US, Norman says his most treasured image is closer to home.
“My favourite place to photograph is Coumeenole beach in Kerry. I was there one day and it was the day after a storm. I managed to get one shot where there was light on the crashing waves, there was a couple of birds in the sky, the Blaskets were in the background, dark and gloomy, it just worked. If I could only photograph one more place, that would be the place I would go to.”
- The Shape of Water, Giles Norman Gallery, as part of the Kinsale Arts Weekend, Jul 6 to 9. For a full programme of events, see www.kinsaleartsweekend.com
