Perigee
Paul Gaffney

Walking through the Luxembourgish Ardennes, Gaffney documented his wanderings using polaroids. Later, he re-explored certain routes after nightfall, to photograph under the light of the full moon.
Bathed in its soft otherworldly glow, the forest’s narrow steep valleys evoke a mysterious, psychological wilderness, in what is in reality, a highly managed man-made environment.

“Drawn with light that is barely perceptible to the eye, Gaffney’s photographs emerge out of intuition, coincidence, and an underlying longing for connection and stillness. And although it’s tempting to call them landscapes, they are created through different ways of knowing a place – ways that acknowledge the moving, feeling body, rather than the distanced and distancing eye, as the foundation of our experience.” – Eugenie Shinkle ¹

Paul Gaffney holds an MFA in Photography from Ulster University and his practice-led PhD research explores different ways of experiencing and representing the landscape, and how the act of image making can both enable and disrupt a sense of flow and connection with our environment.

His work has received a number of awards including the Arts Council’s `Next Generation Award’ and Visual Arts Bursaries, the FSAS Digital Media Award, and a Strategic Projects Award from Wicklow Arts Office.

Gaffney’s books have been nominated for the Photobook Award at the International Photobook Festival Kassel (2013 & 2016) and shortlisted for the European Publishers Award for Photography, and he has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions in the US, UK, the Netherlands, South Africa, Ireland, Italy, France, Spain, Australia and China.

MM Artbook printing & repro was founded by Marcel Meesters in 2010. Based on many of the principles of 1455 Fine Art printers, of which Marcel was formerly a partner, MM Artbook printing & repro focuses on artbook printing, pursuing the highest production standards, and facilitating the demands of many of the top designers, artists, galleries and curators. MM Artbook printing & repro is defined by exacting standards, attention to detail, and by our close working relationship with our clients. MM Artbook printing & repro have offices in Luxembourg and the Netherlands, making us ideally situated to work with clients across Europe.²