Geography professor Chaosheng Zhang shares his stunning photos of Galway and tells how his landscape photography helped him feel truly at home in Ireland

Hailing from Sichuan province in south-west China, Dr Zhang moved to Galway in 2000 with his wife, Dongxia — who teaches Chinese at the university — and their son, Leran. When Dr Zhang swapped the camera on his phone for his first Canon DSLR camera five years ago, he hadn’t a notion his arresting photographs, capturing iconic landscapes of his adopted city, would turn him into a celebrity — with fans at home and abroad and thousands of followers on Instagram and Twitter.

These days, the 54-year-old can’t even go for a mosey around the Cliffs of Moher without people stopping him to tell him how much they love his work. He laughs and admits he still can’t get his head around it. “People here no longer think I’m a strange person from far away. They treat me here now as one of them and it makes me so delighted. When I went to the Cliffs of Moher, people are following me, because they know me. And at Salthill, every day someone will come up to me and say, ‘I love your photos’. I’ve so many more friends now because of the photographs.”

Last May, Dr Zhang was floored when Galway City Council bestowed on him the prestigious Arts, Culture, Heritage & Cúrsaí Gaeilge Award for his photography. Locals and staycationers enjoyed his gloriously meditative photos during his exhibition at Eyre Square Centre last year. His shots are also showcased on the popular This Is Galway and Visit Galway social-media accounts, as well as hanging in homes and offices all over the world — thanks to Dr Zhang’s generosity. He’s uploaded more than 500 photos to a Google Drive account that can be accessed for free.

“Everyone says they love my pictures and say, ‘I want to pay you’. But I have a full-time job and I am happy with what I am paid so I don’t want money. I got a lot of requests but I want to give them away free so people can enjoy them. Quite a few people send me photos of my photographs hanging up in their homes or at the office. A French couple was looking for a picture of Blackrock Diving Tower to buy — I told them to give the money to a charity of their own choice.

“The main aim is to keep people happy. There is an exchange, because I get a benefit from that type of feeling. That makes me feel well and feeling well is much, much better than making money.”

That counted double during the isolation of the pandemic. “Many people on social media said, ‘I want to go home’ — especially in America. I think it helped them seeing pictures of home and that made me very delighted. It makes me happy and helps my own mental health. Giving joy is good for you.”

During one period of lockdown, Dr Zhang hosted a Zoom presentation to share his photography tips with fans around the world. “I did it to cheer people up. I had people from far away. One guy got up at 4am in America. It’d be lovely to do more but I am so busy with my job. Even now, I get so many messages on social media and I’ve no time for much communication, with my work. But I like their messages to show I have seen them. It is a delight.”

Of course, homesickness is something that Dr Zhang is familiar with. Of moving to Ireland in 2000, he recalls: “It was scary. Ireland is a small island very far away, but I got a full-time position and the internet made up my mind. I knew with the internet I would not be isolated. We’d only begun using Windows systems. Before that, it was only telephone lines.

“Back then, China and Ireland had no link — we didn’t know each other. We do now, and a lot of Chinese know Galway too from my photos.”

While in his free time he celebrates the landscape of his beloved home-from-home, in his professional life as a geographer, Dr Zhang serves as its protector. Working at NUI Galway, he is director of the International Network for Environmental and Health at the School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies. His speciality is geographical information system (GIS) computer mapping, producing extensive maps of soil pollution and nutrition.

In 2006, he made the headlines when his extensive soil studies at Galway’s scenic South Park found toxic contamination by metals, including arsenic and zinc, at the site of an old rubbish dump. Dr Zhang publicised his growing concerns about public safety, and Galway County Council subsequently closed off the pollution hotspot to the public for a time.

This connection with the landscape helps his photography — as does doing his homework. “The most important thing for landscapes is to be in the right place at the right time and I always am because I plan this — it really helps to be a physical geographer,” he laughs. “It’s very hard to take a beautiful landscape photo purely by chance, unless you’re really lucky. There’s a lot of homework done before I go out. You have to do research and if I go somewhere, I already have something in my mind. Which direction is the wind, what time, what is the tide doing? I like really low or high tide for perfect reflection.

“I always want this reflection as I love that. I love mirror images. I don’t take photos when the water is rough, unless it’s shockingly rough. If I go out, I check the wind — it impacts the water.”

He pauses, and his passion seeps through the laptop screen; we are video-calling. “You see, I’m always still shocked by the perfect reflection I find here in Galway, especially in Connemara, off some of the lakes — just like mirrors. That, to me, is pure perfection. I’ve got some amazing photos of the Claddagh Basin, the reflection there during sunrise is terrific. That’s one of my favourite sites.”

Dr Zhang’s favourite photograph is one he took “by accident” of NUI Galway, used by the university itself in its promotional material. “It has the Tricolour from the natural colours, so is a lovely patriotic one of Ireland and NUI Galway. That one had no planning, it was by chance. I dropped my daughter off to ballet and I had an hour to kill so I went around to NUI. It was drizzly and foggy and windy and I took it and I was so shocked because the colours were pure Ireland. It was an accident. I was so happy.”

Unlike most of the snap-happy Instagram crowd, he runs a mile from filters. “I don’t use filters, just GND — graduated neutral density. It dims the sky slightly. I don’t use any post-processing and rarely edit my photos.

“The camera isn’t as good as our eyes dealing with contrast. I try to make photos as close to reality as possible. I don’t go for tricks. I want to take something unique. Many photographers enhance colours too much but I’m careful about saturation. I want pictures to be true. I want to remember the true reality and realise and memorise the true reality I see, because there is nothing better to me than the reality.”

It’s this commitment that gets him up early a few times a week to capture more magic. “I come alive in winter, when the colour is so good. For landscape, winter is the best. Taking photos of the moon, it can’t be too dark or too bright, so 20 minutes before sunrise or half an hour after sunset, then you can capture the texture and get the foreground. The time is so limited, otherwise it’s just a white disc. The direction changes every day and you need to know the time it changes.

“I have it in my mind I really want to take a picture of the moon at Blackrock Diving Tower from the golf-club side as you can only take this from a certain angle in a few minutes only twice a year. I’ve tried it before, but it’s not perfect yet. Just a few minutes, when the moon is full in March and in October — just two chances a year and if the weather doesn’t allow, it’s finished. I might get it in a few years.”

He humbly shrugs off the ‘artist’ label. “I’m not an artist, no way, I can just take landscape photos. I use only two lenses — a wide-angle and a zoom lens for my sunsets, and my tripod. I’ve had a few people invite me to do wedding photos but I always decline,” he pauses, smiling. “I say, it’s not my profession.”

His son Leran is now 24 and a TCD chemistry graduate who works in London. Dr Zhang and Dongxia also have two children born in Ireland — Leaving Cert student Edward, and Michelle, who is doing her Junior Cert. Before the pandemic, Dr Zhang was wrestling with whether to remain in Ireland or return home to China when he eventually retires. But thanks to his pictures, now he feels right at home.

“Before I got recognised here, I really was considering where I should go when I retire. It was a big question for me, because I have a lot of colleagues and international colleagues but I don’t really have as many friends as at home, with old classmates and friends and family. But now I think I can stay here in Galway or go anywhere in the world. I have friends here and all over the world. Now this problem is solved and I feel very comfortable here. My photography has helped me feel at home anywhere in the world.”

Instagram: @chaoshengzhang