Famous Irish Photographers

Born in Austria, contemporary visual artist Gottfried Helnwein later bought a castle in Cologne, where he worked, and then moved to Ireland, where he bought another castle and transformed it into his studio. His hyper-realistic performance art and installations, known as Aktions, reflect grim themes such as the Holocaust.

Best known for his abstract paintings composed of geometrical forms, Irish-born British artist Sean Scully is now based in the US. He worked as a laborer and a truck loader while he trained in art. A former Harvard fellow, he later became the first Western artist to with a career-tracking retrospective in China.