I am a London based Irish Photographer and Graphic / Visual artist. I moved to London from Cork City in Ireland to pursue career in Photography 4 years ago, in December 2009 I graduated from Goldsmiths; University of London with a Masters Degree in Image & Communications. My degree culminated with a very prominent multimedia video installation and photography exhibition in the Truman Brewery Gallery in Bricklane London and I have participated in a number of other exhibitions throughout London to date.
Professionally my photographic career has covered commercial photography, photo editing, retouching and creative composition. I have been working in all aspects of the photographic arts for the last ten years covering such diverse topics as photojournalistic & documentary reportage photography, street photography, theatre photography, live event photography, music and fashion photography and on set unit photography for film. Usually, I tend to deploy a photojournalistic documentary style in my approach to shooting. My portfolio covers a variety of events such as The G20, The 2011 Egyptian protests in London, The London Student Protests, The international Property awards and The London Riots amongst others as well as having travelled and photographed extensively across Europe, Northern Africa, The USA and Mexico travelling across the Sahara on camels in North Africa, dawn adventures in hot air balloons in Morocco to spending a month hitchhiking through mountains of Northern Mexico experiencing environmental tourism in action with the Tarahumara Indian tribe.
A lot of my inspiration for ideas come from the idea of transient space… what happens to an area; when through time it’s purpose and it’s focus changes… people come and go business’s come and go yet that space is still there and changes occur over its lifetimes… there is a melancholia or loneliness attached to it seen from a perspective of the onlooker looking upon a scene tainted with imagery from a bygone time waiting for its time once again. I actively pursue themes within many genres of photography ranging from Landscape and ‘urban’ photography to still life, street photography and lifestyle issues such as tattooing and body art. I myself tend to find interest in darker themes and I actively search out inspiration throughout London’s many facets and cultural identities.
Many of my favourite photographers tend to come from the past generations masters such as Gary Winogrand, William Klein, Sebastiao Salgado and W. Eugene Smith amongst many others. I also take inspiration from street photography, graphic design, graffiti and modern art as well as books on illustration and design. I have been intrigued by linguistics and semantics for many years which has led to an interest in the origins of language; two of my favourite authors being Marshall McLuhan and Noam Chomsky.
It is my ambition to work across the Photography and Design media landscape in London and I is currently working on curating exhibitions in Deptford and New Cross with local artists and photographers. I have worked with the Charity Community links developing a photography course for under privileged youths from the East London area of Canning town and am hoping eventually to work with more charity based organisations to set up and develop more community based photography workshops and opportunities for underprivileged areas in London.
Links:
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/57866781@N07/sets/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/gearoidhayes
Leave a Reply