Prayers, 2010 by Patrick Hogan
One must avoid chance and outside stimuli as much as possible; a kind of walling oneself in belongs among the foremost instinctive precautions of spiritual pregnancy.—Friedrich Nietzsche
It will never be my view that solitude is disturbed by the presence of a friend, but that it is enriched. If I had the choice of doing without one or the other, I should prefer to be deprived of solitude rather than of my friend.—Francesco Petrarch
For his series Solitary, Half Mad, Contender Patrick Hogan created a photographic short story based around his experience of living in isolation, with a very low budget, in the rural countryside of Tipperary, Ireland. Exploring his surroundings, Hogan encountered abandoned homes in the woods and, using his Nikon DSLR and Bronica medium-format film camera, documented the environs largely as he found them. The resulting series borders fiction and reality, and presents a psychological story of poverty and reclusiveness often at odds with the literary and romanticized ideals regarding solitude.
Mustard, 2010 by Patrick Hogan
Hogan explains:
I was interested in people who lived alone. For six months, I took pictures around the area. I photographed the forest at night and I photographed rooms where people lived or died on their own. I became interested in the capacity we have as people for isolation, and how romantic ideals of solitude and escapism are usually more fantastical than reality will present. These images are about living alone and the relationship between reality and fantasy.
Animal In The Dark, 2010 by Patrick Hogan
Behind The Garden Wall, 2010 by Patrick Hogan
Patrick Hogan is an Irish photographic artist currently living and working in southeast Ireland. He won the Gallery Of Photography Artist Award 2011 for his series Solitary, Half Mad. In 2009, he completed two international artist in residence programs in Iceland. Prior to this, he worked as a commercial photographer with a leading Irish agency. He will be exhibiting nationally and internationally throughout 2011.
Spent, 2010 by Patrick Hogan
Table, 2010 by Patrick Hogan