JP Keating is an Irish photographer who works both in the studio and on location internationally. He started taking photographs at an early age with his grandmothers’s point-and-shoot camera. Initially, he began with portraits of his family and friends and documenting his life but then in his teen years a love for street photography developed. While studying fashion design in college he began photographing fellow students’ collections and these images started appearing in both national and international publications such as ID magazine, Trendi and Image magazine.
Soon after this, he found himself shooting editorials for publications such as the Sunday Times Style magazine, The Sunday Business Post, Social and Personal magazine and Irish Tatler.
In 2015 the Sunday Independent featured him as a rising star in Irish fashion. Throughout this time working commercially he maintained his love of documentary and his first book “ The Lir is Forever “ was commissioned and published. The book documents the construction and opening of Ireland’s first purpose-built acting school in conjunction with RADA London and Trinity College Dublin. Throughout this process, Many of Ireland’s leading actors, writers and directors sat for him both in the studio and on location.
2015 also saw him commissioned by UNICEF Ireland to document a project in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. He spent a month documenting the construction of several safe parks throughout the most underprivileged areas in the province, photographing the people and their lives within these communities. In 2016 Magnum Photos highlighted his photo essay “ Danny “ as a defining narrative on addiction. For this project, he spent six months with a homeless heroin addict documenting his life.
In 2017 he was featured as one of Ireland’s top creatives by The Irish Times magazine in an interview series which ran nationwide.
Excerpt :
“ Everyone can take a photograph, but not everyone's a photographer. It's an art form that
is honed not just through training, but through dedication, hard work, and visit upon visit to
the Kodak counter. Thus, when kicking off this series, Nine Lives, We had to look for a
photographer who reflected and embodied the creativity and flair which have
been constant themes. Somebody who has visually explored the very essence of Dublin in
all its urbanite glory. That man, and the sixth of our Nine Lives, is J.P Keating, whose work in
portraiture and commercial photography has humanity and character that is only rivalled by the
man himself. His work has flitted between social strata - he's as likely to document the down-
and-out as he is to document Colm Meaney or Saoirse Ronan, and there’s a pervading sense of
the documentary woven into his work. “
KATE COLEMAN - THE IRISH TIMES MAGAZINE
( Full interview is below ).
In 2018 he formed the creative collective “ Aesthetic “ with some of Ireland’s most renowned graphic designers, Videographers and illustrators. He produced and directed numerous still and motion advertisements for brands such as Jameson Irish whiskey, Just - eat.ie, Bord na Mona, Roads luxury group, The Big Grill festival, The Beatyard festival and Bodytonic music as well as providing creative direction for several rebranding projects for various companies in the hospitality sector.
Along with his commercial work, JP is currently working on a project documenting modern rural life in Ireland as well as expanding his food and product portfolio in his studio at home in Wexford where he lives with his wife, two daughters and his dogs Larry and Poppy.
SELECTED PRESS -
THE IRISH TIMES MAGAZINE
“ Everyone can take a photograph, but not everyone's a photographer. It's an art form that
is honed not just through training, but through dedication, hard work, and visit upon visit to
the Kodak counter. Thus, when kicking off this series, Nine Lives, We had to look for a
photographer who reflected and embodied the creativity and flair which have
been constant themes. Somebody who has visually explored the very essence of Dublin in
all its urbanite glory. That man, and the sixth of our Nine Lives, is J.P Keating, whose work in
portraiture and commercial photography has humanity and character that is only rivalled by the
man himself. His work has flitted between social strata - he's as likely to document the down-
and-out as he is to document Colm Meaney or Saoirse Ronan, and there’s a pervading sense of
the documentary woven into his work. We sat down with J.P to talk about his life and work.“I’ve loved
photography ever since I was a kid. Any time we’d go away on a family holiday I’d ask for a little
point-and-shoot disposable camera. Then I worked for a fashion designer - Ali Malek in my early twenties,
and decided to go and study fashion. Then, while I was doing that, I started photographing everyone’s
collections. I had always photographed people, but it just happened really organically. I mean, it
was farcical enough that I had studied fashion, and now I was realising I could do photography
for a living!”
For J.P, there’s something intoxicating about Dublin, “I’m into city-scapes, urban-scapes.” He
feels compelled to document the city through portraiture, and he often spends entire days in the
city, looking, asking and shooting. “You can have a burst of creativity and literally photograph 20
people in 45 minutes” he tells us, “I shoot 90% of my personal work on film - there’s an otherworldliness
to it and there’s this feeling when you finish shooting, and go to get them developed that you
just don’t get with digital.” J.P started street-shooting when visiting New York, “I was on my
own, 23, and New York was massive, so I got up every day at 6am, and walked the length and
breadth of Manhattan. I think it was because I was away that I could just walk up to people and
say ‘hey, can I take your photograph?’ and then, I got home and just couldn’t stop. You get such
a rush out of it. Hardly ever does somebody say no, and I think you can read people before you
even approach them. Something about them has caught your eye, and you don’t know what it
is, but you’re creating something, and you get such a high from it.”
J.P seeks out people of all different creeds and backgrounds in his work, and it is as much
for his own anthropological entertainment as it is for work. He chuckles at memories of gate-
crashing the Eucharistic Congress in 2012, where he really got involved, leading a dance with a
Catholic Youth Group, before peeling himself away and taking some timelessly beautiful shots
of the attendees, or of parties he’d put on as material to photograph. There’s nothing contrived
- it’s all for joy. “When you photograph somebody, there has to be sincerity to it. I don’t like
smiles, because it’s not the person.” This honesty, lack of judgement, and willingness to take
a person at face value accounts for his non-sensationalist, simply beautiful work, and its quiet
power.
It’s probably J.P’s effusive everyman humour that makes his work with high-profile actors and
musicians as powerful as his work documenting the faces at the bus stop. He can’t help but
laugh as he recalls sitting in Colm Meaney’s mam’s kitchen, trying to work out how to shoot
Meaney for The Lir, as the rain pummelled the window panes. On heading into the back garden,
Meaney, with rain-splattered spectacles, starts yelling at the elements. Out comes J.P’s camera,
and some of the most beautiful images you’re ever likely to see of the Irish actor are caught for
posterity. It’s the lack of manipulation that J.P uses, that really gives his work soul, in the most
magical sense of the word.
As for his next project, he is travelling back to the Eastern Cape, working on a book with UNICEF. He’ll be
documenting young people as part of a youth empowerment programme, which we’re certain
will be poignant, affecting work. “
SELECTED COMMERCIAL CLIENTS :
Tiger beer / Unicef Ireland / The Sunday Times / The New York Times / The Irish Times / Roads luxury group / Havas /
3 mobile / Movember Ireland / 3 Fe Coffee / Dawn Fitzgerald Atelier / Thinkhouse PR / WHPR /
Bodytonic music / The Lir Academy / Sure / Cara magazine / Trendi magazine / Barzuk records / Innocent smoothies /
Bacardi / Pernod Ricard / RTE / Dublin Fringe Festival / Sony music / All Bar None / Weirs & Sons /
Social and Personal magazine / Irish Tatler / Slater Design / Saba restaurant /
FOR COMISSIONS / COMMERCIAL PORTFOLIO REQUESTS PLEASE CONTACT :
studio@jpkeating.com
TEL : 00353 83828 2136
INSTAGRAM : JP_KEATING1
