Paul Gaffney
Ireland
We Make the Path by Walking: During 2012 I walked over 3,500 kilometers with the aim of creating a body of work which would explore the idea of long-distance walking as a form of meditation and personal transformation.
My intention was to create a series of quiet, meditative images, which would explore the experience of being immersed in nature and capture the essence of the journey. The images seek to engage the viewer in this walk, and to communicate a sense of the subtle internal and psychological changes which one may undergo while negotiating the landscape.
For the past number of years, Paul Gaffney has been investigating different ways of experiencing and representing landscape. His current PhD research explores how the act of image making can enable and disrupt a sense of connection with one’s surroundings. Drawing on Arnold Berleant’s theory of a ‘participatory approach’ to landscape, in which the artist, environment and viewer are considered to be in continuous dialogue with each other, his practice proposes to communicate an experience of immersion in nature to the viewer.
Gaffney holds an MFA in Photography from the University of Ulster in Belfast, and a Diploma in Documentary Photography from the University of Wales, Newport. He was selected for the Arts Council’s ‘Next Generation Bursary Award’ 2016-17, and has been nominated for both the Prix Pictet and Deutsche Borse prizes.
His acclaimed photobook, We Make the Path by Walking, focused on the idea of long distance walking as a form of meditation.
His second publication Stray was photographed by night in a dense Irish forest and his latest project Perigee was made in the Ardennes in Luxembourg under the light of the full moon. His books have been nominated for the Photobook Award at the International Photobook Festival Kassel (2013 & 2016), shortlisted for the European Publishers Award for Photography, and selected for several ‘Best Photobooks of The Year’ lists.
Gaffney’s work has also been presented as solo exhibitions at the Centre national de l’audiovisuel (Luxembourg), Flowers Gallery (London), Gallery of Photography (Dublin), Belfast Exposed Gallery, Ffotogallery (Cardiff), Oliver Sears Gallery (Dublin) and in group shows and festivals in the US, UK, South Africa, Ireland, Italy, France and China. His images have been published internationally in print and online periodicals including American Suburb X, Harvard Design Review, Creative Review, The New Yorker, European Photography, DU Magazine, Katalog, PaperJam, Source, Photomonitor and Landscape Stories.
