Profile

Photographer: Mick Mackey

Mick Mackey has been photographing oceanic and coastal seascapes, along with their associated marine wildlife, since he first ventured offshore in 1995. Mick established his sea legs on the unforgiving waters of the Southern Ocean, while studying the algal assemblages of the Antarctic pack ice and the planktonic beasties of the ocean that lay below.

Mick made a biological quantum leap when his focus changed from the microscopic to the macroscopic world of dolphins and whales. He cut his photographic teeth while working for the Australian Antarctic Division as a member of the marine mammal observer team. Since arriving in Ireland in 1996, Mick’s remit was expanded to include seabird ecology. For the past 12 years Mick has been employed with University College Cork. Working as a Researcher, he has spent many weeks at sea investigating the abundance and distribution of cetaceans and seabirds off the Irish west coast. As such, Mick has been privy to climatic conditions that few people will ever, or even want to experience. Storm force gales and the resulting 30 to 50 feet seas are not uncommon over the offshore waters of the North Atlantic.

While studying the seabirds that rely on the offshore waters of the northeast Atlantic Ocean for their survival, he developed a unique photographic catalogue of the various behaviours that enable these hardy creatures to survive, together with the exposed and often unforgiving environment in which they eek out an existence.