Giles Norman

Giles Norman born in 1961, to Belgian and English parents,  lives in Kinsale, County Cork  where he has been since 1976.  

A chance request to photograph a school project  provided him with his first opportunity to use a camera, this sparked an interest and he received his first camera for his 18th birthday. By 1981 he had begun creating his first portfolios.

He quickly developing his own style of black and white photography and also began to successfully sell his photographs to craft shops around Ireland. As demand increased he rented darkroom space in kinsale, where a small window to the street meant a steady stream of visitors. The obvious popularity convinced him to open his first black and white photography gallery.

The gallery became successful and gained Giles recognition as one of Ireland’s leading black and white photographers.  He returned many times to the West of Ireland photographing the Aran islands, Clare and Galway.

He expanded his subject matter visiting Paris,  Venice and Florence.  He moved to larger premises in 1992, these premises are now home to the complete black and white portfolios of Giles Norman.

Although Giles spends much of his time in Kinsale he also finds time to add to his portfolios, more recently launched collections include Beara, New York and Dingle.

Giles had always wanted to visit Yosemite National Park and follow in the footsteps of Ansel Adams.  This dream came true in 2004 and gave him the opportunity to created his first American portfolio.  See below two examples taken from this collection:

Over the last number of years giles Normans work has concentrated on what he calls ‘pure landscape’, finding wild and remote places and photographing only what nature has laid down - keeping man-made intrusions to a minimum.  He used a Nikon F80 and a Hasselblad X-pan until 2006 and now uses a D300