Irish Sea

On the edge of last spring I was blessed with the opportunity to go to Wales to assist a photography project on the process of charcoal making.  After the project we drove out to the coast and I got my first look at the Irish Sea.  The sea water is dark and stormy - surrounded by whipping grass and quiet inter-coastal streams.  The sand is wet up to the walls of grass and sticks to your feet like mud.  I loved how the water and the sky didn't really define each other - instead they blend and became one sea.

These photographs were taken on film off a Pentax 6x7.  There is something incredible about film and I am starting to prefer it over anything. It is risky and frustrating -  not being able to use countless frames due to exposure or just way to much dust.  I love how you take photographs and don't see them for a long time - during which I constantly worry something isn't going to come out right. But, I tend to be pleasantly surprised most of the time.  The great war documentary photographer Robert Capa had 35mm rolls of D-Day film that he didn't see for months. Unfortunately due to an assistant error in the darkroom out of the 106 frames fired, 8 negatives came out. 8 beautiful negatives, along with the rest of Capa's WWII work, not only capture a few minutes on the bloody beaches of Normandy but also the entire canon of emotion of America soldiers during WWII. 

I hope one day to create photographs that will convey feelings or ideas that represent a greater truth.  A project of four or five more photographs from the Welsh coast will be on the website soon.

Be blessed,

Cody O'Loughlin

codyoloughlin.com

hello@codyoloughlin.com