The Soul Of Things

Hugh MacConville’s Story

I have lived and worked in the West of Ireland for most of the last 40 years. The cold north Atlantic Sea and the warm water of the Gulf Stream combine to give this coast continually changing weather and endless variations of light and atmosphere. This was one of the reasons why nineteenth-century romantic painters liked to come to this rugged landscape to paint. They left us a mixed legacy of images, some good, some clichéd. Romantic painters presented a particular view of the landscape to reflect how they saw things. This criticism can be levelled at a lot of creative people, including photographers, but the real quest is to see things as they are.

In the early 1970s, black and white photography was considered the only legitimate artistic medium and colour photography was dismissed as merely a technical exercise. In 1972 I worked in Donegal on a fishing trawler and this changed how I saw the world. The explosion of colour that I experienced, the sea, the colours of the fish, the early morning skies and the light on the coastline at evening all convinced me there was more to creative photography. I observed a world in all its colour, excitement and subtlety. Now with digital photography and the range of colours that are available in modern printing, I have a medium that I can use to express what I really want to say.

My Philosophy

Whether you are a visual artist or a writer, the purpose of any artist is to give form to and share a definition of the human experience. In my case it is to give form to the physical landscape in which I live. I work to make pictures that will share what I see. I aim to capture the moment when light and shade and form come together and, in that moment, you see the soul of things.

“As a photographer I have been influenced by a number of painters like the American Rockwell Kent, for his interpterion of landscape. Irish artist like Jack B Yeats by the way he brings elements together in a picture particularly in his illustrations. I have also learned a lot from contemporary artists.”