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Tim Parkin
Amateur Photographer who plays with big cameras and film when in between digital photographs.
I’ll admit that my knowledge of the Irish landscape is quite minimal. I’ve seen a couple of books (including Paul Wakefield’s) but I probably know the US landscape in more detail thanks to the joys of the interwebs and the areas I do know are probably just the cliches. That’s why it’s nice to see a book going into detail about one area of this so obviously beautiful country so we can see some of the range of beauty on offer.
Norman McCloskey’s Park Light - Images of Killarney National Park, is part portfolio, part guide book and part diary of it’s own creation. Aesthetically it has the feel of a Colin Prior book (but with fewer panoramas) and runs the gamut from wildlife to mountain, rivers and waterfalls to country homes. Following on from a brief introduction describing the research that was put into it we jump right into some classic landscape views (in both orientation and inclination) and the park shows itself to similar character to the English Lake District crossed with some of the heath and moor land of the Scottish West.
Norman has obviously travelled extensively around the park to capture the images herein and he describes in one section an early morning boat trip with a slightly confused boatman who proceeded to nearly row them blind over the rapids. He has also included some images of mans historic influence on the land and the estate houses and castles that sit within.
These are really short detours though as the main pace of the book sticks to the classic landscape. The book will definitely capture people’s imaginations and if it doesn’t inspire more than a handful of people to visit I would be very surprised.
The main disappointment of the book is that it doesn’t really know whether it is a portfolio or guide book. I would have liked to have seen more about the paths through the park for instance or perhaps suggestions of where to find more information if I wanted to visit. Either way it’s a great introduction to what looks like a stunning location with many opportunities for the landscape photographer. I’ve included a few spreads of some of my favourite images from the book below. You can buy the book directly from Norman’s Facebook page and his own website.
