Eye's

They say that eyes are the windows to the soul . But look closely enough, and they are also windows to our shared heritage.
I’ve spent years photographing the landscapes, skies, and people of Ireland. Yet one of the most intimate landscapes of all lies within the human eye. The delicate Iris, a living pattern as unique as a fingerprint, yet universal in its wonder.

Each Iris I photograph is a microcosm of connection. The tiny flecks, fibres, and colours from deep peat browns to Atlantic blues and mossy greens, carry echoes of the Irish landscape itself. They resemble the contours of the hills, the ripples of its bog pools, or the spiralling galaxies that move silently above our night skies. In these eyes, I see the individuality of a person’s story, and the shared humanity that binds us together.

Just as no two eyes are the same, no two lives or lineages are identical, yet every iris tells a tale of ancestry, resilience, and belonging.

For generations, Irish heritage has been passed down through song, craft, and landscape. But it also lives in the gaze. The way a Mother looks at her child, the curiosity of a traveller returning home, the spark of creativity in an artist’s eyes.

The Iris becomes a living emblem of identity: part biological, part emotional, and wholly individual. It reflects both where we come from and how we see the world literally and metaphorically. In photographing them, I’m not only capturing the beauty of an eye; I’m recording the unspoken story of each person’s connection to their roots, their land, and their culture. When you magnify an Iris, it can look like a planet seen from space, a world of its own.
That parallel fascinates me: how something so small can mirror the vastness above us. It reminds me of how our personal identities are part of something larger, a collective vision, a shared horizon.

Just as my Astrophotography looks outward to explore our place in the cosmos, my Iris portraits look inward finding universes in human eyes. Together, they form a constellation of humanity, a map of Ireland’s diversity and unity, woven through colour and light.

This project is based between past and present, between people and place, between earth and sky.
My Iris portraits extend that vision inward, showing that even within our individuality lies something deeply shared: a bond to the world around us.

Each eye holds a reflection of its environment, the winds, the rolling peatlands, the flicker of hearthlight. In their intricate designs, we see both the science of creation and the poetry of belonging.
It’s a reminder that while every person is unique, we are all part of one vast, interconnected story.