The Landlady of the Lava Fields
A calico cat sits in the sun in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote on a warm January afternoon in 2017. The charity, Freddy’s Cat House, erected the feeding house you can see in the background.
Breakfast on the Lee
Two pigeons, one pile of grain, and a standoff that never became a fight. There was plenty of food for everyone on Sullivan’s Quay, Cork.
Reflections on Emmett Place
I was standing on Emmett Place with my neck cricked at an awkward angle, trying to work out where the real sky ended and the reflected one began. Two people passed by and I’m sure they might have wondered what I was photographing with my head almost stuck to the window. Well, I’d noticed the…
The Old Shop at Myrtleville
The red building does the heavy lifting in this one. Squat, breeze-block, with a corrugated shutter rusting at its own pace and a smear of white graffiti for company. It used to be a shop. Hard to picture now, with the shutter pulled down for good and the paint going chalky, but at some point…
The wellness slogan and the whipped cream
I shot this on Princes Street in Cork back in 2016, and I had it filed in my head all this time as a Starbucks-versus-Starbucks gag. The wellness sermon in the window was contradicted by the Frappuccino in the hand. Turns out the window belongs to Rocket Man, a salad and juice bar, which means…
A Leg-up at Dawstown
The man in the blue jacket has both hands on the jockey’s left boot, mid heave, and number 37 is halfway between earth and saddle. It’s neither one place nor the other. I love the awkward physics of a leg-up. It looks ungainly until you remember it’s the only sensible way to get a small,…
The Hen Party in Full Stride
I caught this one on a warm Saturday night in Katowice a few years ago. Somewhere on the Mariacka strip where every other doorway is a bar and the pavement is essentially a parade route. Five women in a loose flying-V, the bride-to-be in white on the right with a tiara, a veil and a…
Three on the Sand at Foz do Lizandro
Foz do Lizandro is one of those beaches where the Atlantic doesn’t let you forget it’s the Atlantic. Even on a bright spring day, the surf comes in heavy and the water is properly cold. I caught this little scene from up the beach: mum framing the wave on her phone, dad watching, holding a…
The Diego Effect at Bantry Market
You can tell a dog has just walked past by the geometry of the smiles. Two heads turning at the same angle, the kid in the patterned fleece still oblivious, a smoothie stall behind them advertising Mango Mix and Berry Bliss like it’s any other Friday. Diego is a small chihuahua and entirely unaware that…
Pop Art and Pocket Screens
Daniel Buren’s wall at Tottenham Court Road does most of the work for you. It’s fifty feet of saturated circles and diamonds, all bouncing off those merciless black-and-white stripes. I just had to wait. Two strangers soon obliged: he slumped against a blue diamond mid-text, and she tucked into a green circle taking what looked…
Flamenco Frills on a Valencian Pavement
Valencia in late October had just been rinsed by a quick shower, and the pavement was still glossy when this little party walked past me. The two women had gone all-in on the traje de flamenca. The ruffles stacked like waves, fresh blooms pinned into their hair, and a peach-coloured shawl folded neatly over one…












