Paul Gaffney

Paul Gaffney’s upcoming exhibition at PS² will focus on experimentation with the medium of the photobook, and the sequencing and design decisions behind each of his publications, which will be highlighted through the display of multiple work-in-progress iterations.

Gaffney’s practice-led PhD research challenges the tradition of ‘landscape’ and the way it is observed and represented. Gaffney applies landscape phenomenology, an approach that sees him seeking to translate an experience of the landscape as multisensorial, immersed in and moving through. This disrupts the notion of dualism between nature and culture, observer and observed which underpins the typical Western representation and understanding of landscape. 

About the artist

Gaffney’s 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, and has been nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and Prix Pictet. 

Gaffney’s books are held in a number of artists’ books collections worldwide, and have been selected for the Kassel Photobook Award (2013 & 2016) and shortlisted for the European Publishers Award for Photography. He has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions in the US, UK, Netherlands, Luxembourg, South Africa, Ireland, Italy, France, Spain, Australia, Switzerland and China.

PS² is supported by Belfast City Council and The National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and project funding from Belfast City Council