Hook Head, Co. Wexford

The tower dates back over 800 years. Over 800 years, and it's still doing the same job it was built for. Just with better bulbs! That's what gets me about Hook Head. It looks like any other operational light station with its bold black and white bands and modern optics, but the structure beneath that paint is genuinely medieval.

I made this photograph on an evening when cloud was building from the southwest and the sea was rough, waves breaking hard over the rocks in the foreground. The wind was constant and the light kept breaking through in patches, dancing across the water's surface in a way that's particular to this stretch of the Wexford coast. Not comfortable conditions for standing around with a tripod, but exactly the conditions that make a place like this come alive.

I had the black and white conversion in mind from the start. The tonal range in that sky, the texture in the rock, white water against dark stone. It was always going to work in monochrome. I set up wide to capture the full sweep of the headland and that enormous cloudscape, then watched and waited for the moment when everything aligned.

What fascinates me is how dangerous this coastline must have been before that light existed. The rocks are brutal, the currents unforgiving. Centuries of mariners depended on that tower. A remarkable piece of history hiding in plain sight.