Cork photographer captures stunning aerial photographs

A NEW book gives readers the opportunity to see Ireland from a different perspective, featuring high-and low-altitude imagery of the entire island, captured during the course of the last year from both light aircraft and helicopters.

Ireland – An Aerial Journey is the latest book by Cork’s Dennis Horgan, a professional aerial photographer.

Mr Horgan specialises in photography using fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. Operating out of Atlantic Flight Training Academy at Cork Airport, Weston Airport, Dublin, and Abbeyshrule Aerodrome, Longford, he is the author of four books of aerial photography including Cork From The Air (2017) and Dublin From The Air (2018).

The subject matter of Ireland – An Aerial Journey includes heritage, inland/coastal landscapes, commerce, maritime and architecture. The text is by Tim McCarthy, a keen amateur photographer and hillwalker with an extensive knowledge of the Irish landscape. 

The book showcases Ireland’s historic structures, its modern vibrant buildings and its infrastructure, ranging from Cape Clear in the south to Rathlin Island in the north. 

The author captures a diverse collection of images, from the majesty of Skellig Michael to cities with their strikingly modern architecture.

“For almost 60 years I’ve been flying into the island of Ireland - the past 20 of them spent commuting back and forth on a weekly basis between London and Cork - it all seems a bit mad in hindsight!” renowned film producer David Puttnam writes in the foreward.

 “But it does allow me to claim that in just about every possible combination of weather conditions, I know what Ireland looks like from above.

“Hold that thought, because it offers a clue to what I find most fascinating about Dennis Horgan’s most recent book.

“Whilst I’ve watched the island change, Dennis has documented that change in all its beauty and complexity. What emerges from these pages is that without intelligent planning, the commercial development of the country could invoke WB Yeats’ prophecy of a ‘terrible beauty’ being born.”

Mr Puttnam believes Ireland’s landscape is at a crossroads.

“Seen from above, for all the hardship and individual suffering of the past, this island has largely escaped the industrial devastation of so many parts of the UK, let alone other ‘coal and oil cursed’ nations of the world,” he writes. 

“It has no ‘black country’, few ‘industrial wastelands’, no endless pattern of oil rigs to permanently disfigure its landscape in ways comparable to that of its larger neighbour. 

"In hindsight, and certainly when viewed from the air, we can now see that as an incredible blessing.

“Dennis has photographed an evolving situation, a country caught midway between its post-industrial present and the type of thoughtful, civic-centered nation into which it will have to evolve if the worse depredations of our climate-riven future are to be avoided.

“Yet the warning signs are there, as evident [in some picture] spreads, where planning appears to be at best haphazard and at worst incoherent.

“In obeying the ruthless demands of economic growth, we might find ourselves jeopardizing the very thing that makes Ireland special, different, or, as we claim in West Cork ‘a place apart’.

“In my view, this is an important book, in that it celebrates a very particular moment in time - the future beckons; but the past is brilliantly illustrated to remind us that there can be no one-way bet on any form of sustainable future.”

Ireland – An Aerial Journey is a high-quality hardback, full colour 250 page book. It is available in bookshops and can be ordered online at www.dennishorgan.ie, price €35.

The author will be in Waterstones on Patrick Street, Cork city, on Saturday, December 4, from 3pm to 5pm, to sign copies of his new book.