David Flood left a career as a software developer and trainer in 2006 to begin his journey in photography, graduating from Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) in 2010. He went on to work at PhotoMuseum Ireland and Dún Laoghaire Futher Education Institute, where he taught photography for several years before moving to Finland. In 2015 he returned to Ireland to complete a Master of Arts in photography at Dún Laoghaire IADT before returning to Finland to commence a PhD at the University of Helsinki in 2020. He has taught at Aalto University and Espoo Adult Education centre in Finland, while also working on projects that examine the relationship between photography, landscape, and the body. His work has been presented at PhotoIreland, Helsinki PhotoMedia, The Royal Geographic Society, and Landskrona Foto in Sweden. He has also had work published in Dodho magazine (2021) and as a ‘TLP’ edition at PhotoIreland (2022).
The work I most often create is a reflection on landscapes and the places and people that inhabit them. As an image-maker and researcher, it is important for me to take a considered approach. Photography can easily create a subject-object dictum, where we have the ‘looked-at’ and ‘looked-upon’. To avoid such a scenario, I try to create a practice focused on co-creation where I open a conversation with the people or places that I photograph so that they feel they have a sense of control over how they are represented. The work I do without the camera forms an important part of my practice. In that work I can get to really know who I am creating the photograph with, allowing me to as faithfully as possible communicate with my audience about people and places.
