Michael Boran is an acclaimed Irish photographer whose work explores constructed and found worlds through a lens that bridges art, science, and philosophy. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions and commissions at Photo Museum Ireland (formerly The Gallery of Photography), since 1989. Boran’s work has also been featured in commissioned exhibitions: Without Walls and The Bank, both awarded through national competition.
Boran’s early inclusion in True Stories and Photofictions at the Gallery’s original Wellington Quay space introduced his work to wider audiences, leading to his distinction as the only Irish photographer featured in Mary Warner Marian’s The History of Photography.

His landmark solo exhibition The Palace of Bubbles (1998) received critical acclaim, with RTÉ’s Arts Show panel—Anne Enright, Medbh Ruane, and Graham Lenehan—praising it as “combining serious metaphysical questions with sheer pleasure… everyone liked that one, that’s a rarity.” The exhibition’s influence extended beyond the art world: photographs from The Palace of Bubbles were published in Weaire and Hutzler’s The Physics of Foams, later cited as a design inspiration for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Aquatics Centre (reference). Images were also included in Peter Sloterdijk’s The Spheres Trilogy, (German: Sphären-Trilogie) marking Boran’s work as a bridge between artistic, scientific, and philosophical inquiry.

In addition to his solo and group exhibitions at Photo Museum Ireland, Boran was commissioned by the Central Bank of Ireland to produce a photographic project as part of the Bank’s Percent for Art scheme, a significant public commission that further established his reputation for responding to urban and institutional spaces with a uniquely observational approach.

Boran’s practice continues to evolve through national and international exhibitions, including regular shows at Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin. His work is held in public and private collections, and he has been awarded residencies including a long-term studio at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, where he continues to develop projects that engage with the intersections of landscape, place, and human intervention.

A dedicated photographic practitioner working with both analogue and digital methods, Boran’s work maintains a sensitivity to materials and processes, as exemplified in his use of the Museum’s colour darkroom for The Palace of Bubbles.

Further details of his work and exhibitions can be found at Kevin Kavanagh Gallery and his blog michaelboran.blogspot.com.