What a Difference a Day Makes: I’m glad the judge said those words — without them, it’d have been a slower process to here

Cork aerial photographer Dennis Horgan has been on countless journeys over the county’s dramatic cliffs, harbours and islands for his latest collection The Coast of Cork: A View From Above. Pictures: Chani Anderson

After the property market crashed, I was in the Family Law Court in Dublin. I’d been in auctioneering all my life, I was a valuer, doing valuations for court cases.

On this day around 2009, I was in court doing a valuation for the husband in a divorce case — another valuer was there for the wife. And the judge said: "How can you valuers be sure of the value of anything now? Sure everything’s gone, the market has crashed."

What the judge was saying was factual — the banks weren’t giving any money, nobody wanted to buy anything, everybody wanted to sell. I’d been thinking it alright... what am I going to do? But his words were my worst fear realised — they kind of shook me.

I’d been in the business since I was 19. I was 59 now, and it’s a shock to get at 59, to be thinking ‘what am I going to do now?’. I had no work anymore, no income, I needed to do something. That judge was the catalyst for realising it.

There’s a gap between the time you realise something, and when you take action. It wasn’t instantaneous, no flash. It took a while. I didn’t make a plan, but there was a touch of serendipity… 

A man I knew, retiring as an aerial photographer. I was always into photography. My first job as an auctioneer, they had a fabulous camera for taking pictures of houses. The boss was a decent fella and one weekend I said ‘I’m going to an airshow, would you mind if I borrowed the camera?’ And I started taking pictures of airshows.

I loved that about photography — capturing a moment in time, a very fleeting moment someone else mightn’t see – that I could create in this way.

And I loved airplanes, loved going up in them. Cork Airport opened in 1961. Our home was right on the flight path for planes coming in from the north. These were propeller planes and they were slow. First you heard this distant rumble and then they very slowly passed — you got a really great look. I’d climb up on the shed to see even closer.

With his head quite literally among the clouds, Cork’s Dennis Horgan smiles as he launches The Coast of Cork: A View From Above, a celebration of the county’s landscapes seen through his unique aerial lens. Picture Chani Anderson.

I was 14, 15, I’d never seen anything like it. Incredible to see these machines, suspended in the air like birds. And the airline colours, the striking liveries on them back then. The ones I saw — Cambrian Airlines from Wales, BEA, exotic things like Starways, a cargo airline.

Maybe the third plane to land in the airport, a flight from Cardiff, my aunt brought me to see it landing…. It was very primitive then, no pathway to go the right way, very little fencing.

But… hundreds of people standing near the apron while this plane came in. They started moving towards it, not rushing it, but the plane was still moving. The security couldn’t handle it — the fire engines came, sprayed the people with water. And everybody stopped, and the plane made its way.

I was just fascinated. Every Saturday morning my best pal and I cycling up there, spending the day spotting planes. No internet then... my brother knew someone working in the airport, he’d tell us what type of plane was landing, what airline, where it was coming from, what time it’d land.

That they could leave a patch of concrete in the middle of London, land in another patch of concrete up near Ballygarvan — I still find amazing.

So I loved photography and I loved planes, and the two coincided, and that’s how the whole thing started. This aerial photographer I knew was retiring, and I thought I might give it a go. 

I mentioned to an auctioneer pal I was doing something interesting one Friday — my brother’s friend taking me for a helicopter spin down to the Fastnet. He said: "You’ve a camera, haven’t you? Could you take a picture of this farm I’m selling near Bandon?"

I took the photo… The auctioneer paid for it… and it crystallised for me: if one man wants this there must be others.

I started going up for auctioneers once or twice a month with Atlantic Flight Training Academy, I’d wait ‘til I had three or four jobs. A priest looked for a picture of his church and paid me. I did work for the City Council, the Harbour Commissioners.

I thought maybe I’d do an aerial photography book of Cork. I’ve done eight now, including two of Dublin and one of lighthouses.

Absolutely 1,000% I love it. I sometimes ask: do I go flying to do aerial photography or do I do aerial photography to go flying.

Flying 1,000 feet over farms, towns, lighthouses, I see how beautiful they are — and see it for a long time. Whereas in a plane: vroom, like going up in a lift, you’re in the clouds, then the sunshine, and you’ve seen nothing.

I’m glad the judge said those words. Without them, it’d have been a slower process to here. The serendipity that happens in life. I found I could turn my hobby into a business. I look back: somebody was pushing buttons for me somewhere, and it wasn’t me.

The Coast of Cork — A View from Above by Dennis Horgan

• Dennis Horgan’s new book of aerial photography, The Coast of Cork — A View from Above, showcases Cork’s maritime features, including high- and low-level coastal panoramas, shipwrecks, lighthouses, marine wildlife, deep sea fishing and cruise ships. All images captured from helicopter or light aircraft. Available at dennishorgan.ie