About SKYROAD

I am a writer (of poetry mainly) and photographer. I also teach creative writing part-time. I first became aware of photography in the 1970s. Robert Frank was probably my first big influence, then Cartier-Bresson, Andre Kertesz, Martin Parr's 'Bad Weather' and Fay Godwin's 'Land'. Koudelka was another revelation.

In 1979, when I was working in a Dublin restaurant, someone lent me their SLR for the day. It was like an unblinkering, the opening of a third eye; I found that this was a language I already spoke with some fluency (having spent a year in Art School probably helped). I have been taking photographs ever since.

In the last few years I have given more time to my photography, and have completed a project on The Burren/Inis Mór. I was pleasantly surprised to get a phone call from the Observer last year to say that one of my photographs (of a Chinese takeaway) had been shortlisted for the Observer 'Seeds of Change' competition. It didn't win, but it was a pleasure to go and see it mounted and exhibited with the others in the Oxo Tower Gallery in London. The photo is on their website HERE Just click on 'Runners Up' on the right and scroll across.

My publishers, Salmon Poetry, have let me do the cover photography for my two collections, 'Airborne' and 'The Sky Road'. The second collection is due out in May, and I am especially pleased with the cover, a B&W photo I took in 1994 with my old Nikon F3, of a couple asleep on a bus in Wicklow (a la Cartier-Bresson). I still think it is one of my best.

Links:
My Saatchi Gallery page:
My blog: LIGHTBOX
My first collection: Airborne
My second collection: The Sky Road
An archive I'm beginning to compile on the Shutterchance website, where my name is Cave Art