Dance Photography Residency 2012 at DanceHouse

Dance Ireland announces the appointment of Maurice Gunning as Photographer in Residence at DanceHouse for 2012.

Maurice Gunning has been invited by Dance Ireland to undertake a dance photography project based at DanceHouse. During the year Maurice as Photographer in Residence will engage with various aspects of the Dance Ireland programme and DanceHouse artists to create a new body of work, incorporating photography and moving image. The residency commences with a period of research and development from March. 

Maurice Gunning has been Photographer in Residence at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance since 2004. With a concentration on fine art documentary photography as well as specialising in performing arts photography, Maurice worked with many of the leading contemporary dancers and traditional & classical musicians in Ireland and internationally. This residency was celebrated in 2010 with an extensive solo exhibition, FÍS exhibited throughout the new purpose-built Irish World Academy building at the University of Limerick.

Maurice received his MFA in fine art documentary photography from the University of Wales in 2010. His MFA work concentrated on the Argentine Irish Diaspora and was exhibited in the Cultural Centre, Buenos Aires and the Gallery of Photography, Wales. This exhibition, Encuentro, was featured in the Absolut Fringe 2011 and will be exhibited at this year’s PhotoIreland Festival Migrations: Diaspora & Cultural Identity at the National Photographic Archive.

Working with the Burren Chernobyl Project in Belarus, Maurice produced the first exhibition of his portraits from within the state institutions, Inside Belarus, exhibited in Glór, Ennis in April 2011 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident and later in Minsk. Inside Belarus will be exhibited in the Irish Aid Centre, Dublin for the month of March.

Maurice was grant funded by The Heritage Council from 2005 – 2008 to develop a photographic series on Ireland’s Traditional Boat Heritage. This work was exhibited in the Cultural Centre, Athens in 2009 and the Hunt Museum, Limerick in 2011.

A new direction into cinematography saw Maurice’s first documentary, The Chile 33, broadcast on RTÉ, and internationally through Off The Fence Distribution marking the one year anniversary of the Chilean miners story. Other roles as cinematographer include The Dance of Making, with dance filmmaker Mary Wycherley; and a new documentary, A Portrait of Bullfighting, being filmed this spring in Spain.

A selection of his dance photography work, Pulse is currently on display at DanceHouse.

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