Ronan Gallagher: a Clare man shooting surfers, squatters and Kate Moss

It all began with a disposable camera bought in Boots in Galway in 2004. Ronan Gallagher, a young surfer from Barefield, outside Ennis, was doing an arts foundation year in Galway when he decided to drop out and take pictures instead.

His two older brothers, also keen surfers, were already following their chosen paths; one of them, Aaron, went on to run the SUP Surf School in Spanish Point. However, his eldest brother, Gavin, who was then working on cruise ships, was his biggest influence at the time. “He would show me his videos and his photographs, and that was the first time that the idea that you could make a living travelling and taking photos took hold,” says Gallagher when we meet in London during fashion week.

A decade later he is much in demand internationally, and is particularly popular with Gucci in Milan. He recently shot Kate Moss in Rome for two days for Gucci's current Jackie O campaign, and was the first to take the official portrait of the brand's new creative director, Alessandro Michele. Prior to that he was involved with Gucci's previous incumbent, Frida Giannini, documenting her work with Unicef and the Chime for Change projects with which she was involved in Japan and Brazil.

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So how did it all start? After quitting the arts course in Galway, Gallagher started taking pictures of skateboarders before going under the wing of his brother, Gavin, who was starting his business as a wedding videographer. “He taught me the ropes. It was like a learning stepping stone, but my biggest goal, my 100 per cent goal, was to be a photojournalist and document wars and everyday life.” Documentary photography was to have a huge influence on his later fashion work.

Having decided to move to London to try his hand at fashion, he was fortunate to get an introduction through Gavin to the successful London-based fashion photographer Niall O’Brien. “I had no idea what the competition was like, and Niall told me my fashion was crap, but he loved my documentary work and told me to show more of that. I realised that fashion doesn’t have to be restricted to a studio.”

He spent three years as O’Brien’s assistant using 35mm and then video, and from there moved on to work with another Irish photographer, Brian Daly. “From him I learned loads about life and photography and assisted him for four years, until he told me it was time to leave the nest.”

First big break

Gallagher’s first big break was joining the Wednesday agency in 2013 where he got his first campaign for Napapijri, an Italian brand. “I had to follow a couple from Rome to Sweden for a social campaign on a two-week road trip with no stylist, no hair and make-up, just me, the producer and Rob and Jane. I thought, it rocks being a photographer; this is cool. That was where my hunger for shooting video started, and I got a new client, Nautica. It was amazing having a US client right away.”

He has done six seasons with Nautica and made impressive videos of everything from Scottish fishermen to American lifeguards, as well as backstage work. “I really enjoy that because of the documentary aspects, and now I am getting a lot of work for lookbooks.”

His backstage work caught Gucci’s attention and he was recommended for its menswear campaign. “Then two weeks later I was asked if I wanted to go to Brazil to document Frida Giannini on a three-week road trip. That was incredible.”

Back in London, he was contacted by his agent about a job in Rome. At first Gallagher refused it because of other commitments. His agent revealed that the assignment was with Kate Moss, so Gallagher cancelled his other job and headed to Italy.

Shooting Kate Moss He had already met the model briefly at a party in London; he had knocked over a tray of champagne with his backpack as he was being introduced. “She was so easy to work with, such an easygoing person, very relaxed about the whole environment,” he remembers. “It was such a breeze to shoot, and her face seemed so surreal when I looked through the lens. It gave me such a boost that I could work with people who are so respected in the industry. It has led to many more random jobs.”

The last year has been particularly busy. He has completed a campaign for Lindex in New York, one for the UK brand Beau Homme, Nautica's kid's campaign for the second year running and worked with Nike, Esprit and H&M and with well-known faces such as Lykke Li, Kate Hudson, Tony Garn and Beyoncé.

Both his fashion and documentary work show his keen observational skills and empathy with his subjects, while his sense of composition is powerful, fresh and atmospheric. Personal work such as his reportage of the Mursi tribe, pastoralists in remote southern Ethiopia, are notable, as are his portraits of squatters in Slab City, a campsite in the Colorado Desert in California. He has recently returned from Japan, where he visited the areas worst hit by the tsunami, and this month, after completing backstage work for Gucci, he heads to Mozambique to document the education programmes that Gucci partner with Unicef. The images from this trip will be exhibited in Gucci stores around the world.

“I am only at the beginning of my career in terms of where I want to go and what I want to do,” he says. “Life in London is such an incredible experience; you see the standard of the work being produced and it never stops giving you inspiration and a hunger to do more.”

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