Music

Photography in Traditional Music is what Nutan is best known for in Ireland, from as far back as 1969 when he photographed such as sean-nós singer Seosamh Ó hÉanaí and song collector Tom Munnelly among other musicians, promoters and aficionados in O’Donoghues of Dublin. His work with music in the years since has mainly been album covers, notably for Sharon Shannon, John Prine, John Wynne, Martin Hayes, Ben Lennon, Arcady, Altan, Frankie Gavin, Joe Derrane, John Williams, The Lonely Stranded Band, John Wynne and John Mc Evoy, Catherine Mc Evoy and Felix Dolan, Peter Horan and Gerry Harrington, Johnny Connolly, Mary Bergin, Claire Keville.

His energy and zeal inspired two Traditional music books, The Blooming Meadows, the world of Irish Traditional musicians (with Charlie Piggott and Fintan Vallely) in 1998, and Ben Lennon – The Tailor’s Twist (with Fintan Vallely and Martin Gaffney) in 2011. His music photos are the backbone of two major productions – Compánach, a concert with leading musicians based on Fintan Vallely’s encyclopedia, “Companion to Irish Traditional Music”, which ran for a decade after 2012, and Turas, the DVD movie of the concert.

His most recent collaboration has been portrait images for the book Beating Time, Vallely’s 2025 seminal history of the Irish bodhrán drum.