Blog Launch
Hi.
If you are here, then chances are you have come across my website because you are interested in photography or want to know whether I am the right person to hire for a project or event that requires a photographer. Either way, I would like to welcome you and hope that you will enjoy looking at the portfolio of my work.
It is always weird, having to condense a constantly growing archive of images which now numbers well into the thousands, if not over ten thousand, to give you an idea of what kind of work I do. It’s hard because when it comes to images, it is purely a matter of opinion, and the images that I think are amazing and compelling might fall short for someone else.
That’s why it is suggested that any photographer looking to establish who they are and what they stand for should launch a blog. So here it is, my first blog post.
So let me start off by explaining who I am.
My name is already established enough on this site to leave out the need for a formal introduction. So I will start by telling you that I began photography many years ago. In 1996, when I was 19, I decided that I would work as a creative. At that point, there was not a lot going on for a poet, which was my initial choice of creative work. Especially a poet from a working-class background, who had dropped out of school early, and whose education when it came to writing had been solely through the books that I read.
But I was determined to write my own voice and try to create poems that expressed what people now call “my own truth.”
Then, in 2000, while I was putting together my first collection, The Folk Hero Midget (sorry for the offence this title causes), I began painting using oils, and this kick-started my work as a visual artist. Again, coming from a working-class background, with no education to speak of, and with a child, a full-time job, and a girlfriend who didn’t value my desire to be an artist much, I was up against it.
It was during this time that I started using photography as an aid memoire, to help with my paintings and drawing, because I couldn’t see what I wanted to do in my head. I later learned that this is called Aphantasia. As I got into taking photos, though, I began dreaming of doing it as an art form itself, but never could afford the equipment to really get into it.
That relationship ended, and my life changed.
I moved to England, got married. Moved home, then we got pregnant and moved back to England, where we had two children and lived for 14 years, where I was a stay-at-home dad and home-educator. Life moved along and I went with it, until… yep, you guessed it. 2020.
The pandemic was mostly spent with me writing, drawing, and meditating in the garden. Then, in 2021, I got blood clots thanks to the AstraZeneca vaccine twice, while my dad died from ALS, and I was unable to get over to see him. I also realised that life in England was really going downhill, and the pull home stopped being a gentle heart-tug and more like a loud scream that could not be ignored.
That’s what led me and my family to return to Ireland in 2024.
Of course, my wife took her freelance work with her, but the cost of living and the fact that our daughters were on the verge of their teens meant I had to go and work and after a few stabs at trying to get support for my work as an artist which was shot down by all parties, I relaised I would have to take my love of taking photos and use that to fund my artistic projects. So that’s why I have launched my practice, and now I am hoping to shoot portraits, commercial and branding photography.
To that end, I am here, writing this blog and hoping that you will like what you see and think, “there’s the man for me.” This blog will have stories about shoots I have run and other aspects of my practice. I hope you will enjoy it.
You are very welcome here.
© Vincent S. Coster 2025
Self-portrait of the photographer © Vincent S. Coster 2025
