Maurice Gunning, MFA, is an Irish photographer and documentary filmmaker. Appointed to the position of artist in residence at many cultural institutions, Gunning continues to exhibit internationally with support from the Irish Arts Council and Culture Ireland. He is currently a member of the advisory board of PhotoIreland.

Since 2006, Gunning has been the resident photographer at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. He continues to collaborate with many national and international artists through this residency. His work was celebrated in 2010 in the form of an extensive permanent exhibition and catalogue at the Irish World Academy.

Dance Ireland invited Gunning to be their artist in residence at Dance House, Dublin, where he created a new body of photographic work. This work was premiered in May 2013 with a large permanent solo show at Dance House. “We are delighted to commission such unique images from Maurice, a photographic artist of the highest quality whose work will add to our understanding of the beauty of movement.” (Paul Johnson, Dance Ireland Chief Executive).

Gunning has worked extensively in Buenos Aires with the Argentine Irish Diaspora over a number of years. With support from Culture Ireland and the Irish Embassy, he exhibited his solo show, Encuentro, at the Centro Cultural de Recoleta in Buenos Aires, in several UK galleries and at the Irish National Photographic Archive at the invitation of PhotoIreland Festival 2012. According to Sean O’Hagan of The Guardian, the show “focuses on the Argentine-Irish community in Buenos Aires, descendants of the original immigrants that arrived there in the 1800s. Gunning’s poetic, fragmentary style is perfectly suited to the kind of visual storytelling that draws on memory, text and longing to at once evoke the past and the present”.

In 2013, the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest invited Gunning to be their first artist in residence. The work produced during this residency will be premiered in Budapest at the Liszt Academy in 2015 with support from Culture Ireland, the Arts Council and the Irish Embassy.

In 2014, Hope & Homes for Children (Romania) commissioned Gunning to create a book and exhibition, Family:Familie – Stories of Five Romanian Families, which were premiered in May of that year at the National Parliament and National Library, Bucharest. In 2015, Irish Aid and the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade awarded Gunning the Simon Cumbers Media Fund, which enabled him to work in The Gambia on themes relating to the UNHCR Millennium Development Goals.

Gunning’s first documentary, The Chile 33, filmed during 2010, was broadcast in over 50 countries to commemorate the first anniversary of the mining incident. Gunning continues to work internationally as a cinematographer with Swedish intergovernmental organisation The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).