This work which started as my graduate year photography practice evolved from an earlier project on archiving “found” images and attempting to uncover the histories they contain. Taking into consideration Ireland as an island I decided to look for historic sites beyond the land and set out to investigate the liquid moving seascape in places where ships and lives were lost.

It is for this reason that I also chose the title No Tengo Mas Que Darte. The words which mean ‘I have nothing else to give you’ come from an engraved gold ring recovered at the Armada wreck site of the Gerona and it is this poignant message that inspired me to research sites of loss off the cost of Ireland.

In some cases, apart from the obvious reasons for site inaccessibility, there is actually nothing left to uncover from the seabed due to treasure hunting and salvaging. Nonetheless, we know from state records and newspaper reports that these tragic events occurred. I would define this body of work through the contradictory tense of the ‘past present continuous’. Another point to consider is that apart from the inaccessible depths of the sea, it was also politics that obscured wrecks like the RMS Leinster.  Despite the greatest loss of life recorded in the Irish Sea, it was the turbulent birth of the Free State that eclipsed its sinking.

Shot predominantly on 35mm Kodachrome in its final years of production and cessation of availability, I photographed from fixed positions towards the sites of loss of the last hours of available light.