Bob Gallagher is a director, writer and cinematographer based in Ireland. He has been declared a ‘Good Soldier of Cinema’ by Werner Herzog, considered ‘One of the nation’s premiere creative forces in the visual arts’ by Totally Dublin Magazine, and described by Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis as a filmmaker who ‘can be lyrical, as well as forensically evil’.
Bounding through styles and subjects, often in enthusiastic collaboration, his work traverses boundaries and teases out emotional soft spots. His visual stories are marked by a polished absurdity and elements of the fantastic. With a passion for exploration, Bob’s music video work has found him partaking in shamanic rituals, recreating Caravaggio’s studio, walking 200km across Ireland, consulting a dominatrix, and cutting up a corpse. Recent music video work includes Gilla Band’s ‘Shoulderblades’, which he choreographed for contemporary dancer Oona Doherty, and Lankum’s ‘The Young People’ which was named Music Video of the Year at the Irish Film Festival London.
Amongst a prolific output of music videos, music performance films and commercial work, Bob has directed three short drama films and three short documentaries to date, marrying striking visuals with deftly observed, character driven narratives. Early in 2017 Bob was invited to Cuba to participate in a 10 day practical workshop with Werner Herzog, resulting in two short documentary films ‘The Impossible Flight of the Stone’ and ‘Salon’. Current projects include ‘Hour of the Ox’, a short documentary in collaboration with musician Katie Kim and ‘If Love Be Blind’ a short experimental film made as part of the ‘Arri Alexa Take’ supported by Arri Cameras and the Screen Director’s Guild of Ireland. Bob is currently developing a feature length documentary, supported by the Cork International Film Festival’s ‘Ignite: Documentary Talent Campus’ and a feature length drama selected for Screen Ireland’s ‘Director’s Concept Development Award’.
Bob is also a photographer, specialising in 3D images shot on 35mm film . He has exhibited as an artist-in-residence at the Darkroom, and as part of Photo Ireland Festival. He has also completed artist residencies at The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Villa Lena Art Foundation, (Tuscany), Strule Arts Centre (Omagh) D-Light Studios (Dublin), Siamsa Tíre (Tralee) and most recently the Centre Culturel Irlandais (Paris). He also also been commissioned by the Irish Arts Centre (New York) as part of their Grásta series and by the Regional Cultural Centre (Letterkenny) as part of their ‘Dream Baby Dream’ programme.
Bob is also a traditional singer and a member of the Inishowen Traditional Singers’ Circle. He has been selected for Trad Ireland’s ‘Trad Visionaries 20/20’ series, the Arts Council ‘Traditional Arts Project Award’ and in 2021 curated and performed as part of an ensemble in ‘Aiteach: From Cú Chulainn to the Quare Fellow’ an exploration of queer Irish authorship in song and poetry, live-streamed from Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane and commissioned by Dublin City Council.
Bob is a member of Visual Artists Ireland, The Screen Director’s Guild and the Irish Writers Centre.
