The Ireland Landscape

While playing many rounds of golf with my friend Paul Zingg over the years, we couldn’t help but notice, as have many avid golfers, that present in the game are beings with higher powers known as the “golf gods.” Often called upon and sworn at, an almost universal feeling exists among amateur and pro alike that these gods exert ultimate control in this most devilish game.

In 2000 and again in 2002, Paul organized trips to Ireland, in part to see if we could experience these golf gods at closer range. His new book, An Emerald Odyssey: In Search of the Golf Gods and Ireland, to which I am proud to have contributed a number of photographs, focuses on the history, mythology and remarkable aura of mystery one experiences on these Irish links. It feels, as he says, “about as close to heaven as golf gets.” (See News)

I took the photographs during rounds of golf. The beauty, austerity and sense of ancient connection were profound. I attempted to capture these feelings in photographic form. For the book, I transformed the original color photographs into black and white renderings. This interpretation has given them an evocative quality that is more symbolic and less overtly descriptive.

This work, both color and B/W, is available as archival pigments prints in a series or individually.

Please contact this website if interested in purchase or exhibition of the work.

Eric B. Johnson

Photography

The Ireland Landscapes