Celebrating our coast

Entirely produced and published by specialist printers in Ireland, the spectacular 90 image portfolio entitled ‘The Irish Light’ was made possible by the innovative fundraising medium of crowd sourcing, whereby a large pool of people contribute relatively small sums of money to see a project realised.

North Antrim’s heritage-rich landscapes have often inspired Peter Cox, who has returned to the county’s dramatic coastline regularly over the past seven years.

Peter Cox says: “Being right at the north of Ireland, the light in Antrim has a very different quality to where I live down in Cork. The coastal sunrises and sunsets are particularly spectacular and combined with the county’s rich historical sites, it is really one of the most special places to photograph in Ireland.”

Peter’s breathtaking landscapes are united in their central theme of depicting Ireland’s character and soul in a still image by finding the perfect light. Frustrated by seeing endless examples of flat, stereotypical Irish landscape photography “of blue skies and grazing sheep” Peter was prepared to go to any length to make photographs that really captured Ireland’s individual character.

He says: “I’ve spent many hours hanging out of the side of helicopters and perching on the edge of 30 metre high rocks in the stormy Atlantic Ocean waiting for the perfect light. Sharing the pure joy I feel when I capture in a photograph the real character of this unique island is worth any amount of discomfort or midnight alarm calls.”

‘The Irish Light – a collection of landscape photographs’ by Peter Cox is on sale from his gallery in Killarney, http://www.petercox.ie/, Easons and selected independent bookshops nationwide.