Gerard Bonus was born during 1954 in No.8 Robert Street, Cork, Ireland.
This makes me a “marshian” as Cork City was built on a bog and the central portion or the march was the last parts to be covered over, whenever, sometime before I was born but not so long ago that it's still, in 2003 being referred to as "the marsh!"

Schooling was elementary, starting at 4 years of age in my sister's convent where I was treated with a certain kindness from the nuns as my father died in the first year and I was one of the very few to get free milk and an iced bun, I can still taste those today, and the ½ pint milk warmed by an open turf fire, especially on those bitterly cold winter days, where has the cold gone?

Anyway I progressed to the next level, through primary, First Holy Communion and resisted the pledge at Confirmation but it was secondary school were I met the infamous “Brothers” running these schools but we were not our fathers and stood up to them (little knowing the truth then) and it was here also that my photography career really became as I became chairperson of the “Film Society” in the senior years.

My interest in photography stems from my deep interest in astronomy but I could not stand those terribly cold nights so I turned to photography. I knew nothing and blamed the chemist for destroying my films of the night sky, so I enrolled in the local library and found out just how wrong I had been.

My career moved off before I left school with a few portraits and weddings but I actually did not like the photography so much and wanted to be a graphic artist but lacked the College education and courses that they demanded which sort of put me down so I gave up and took a job, becoming assistant manager to a local paper mill making craft boxes until absorption by the parent company and being laid off.

I then entered my wedding photography career, which was absolutely brilliant for a few years, but I had made a few bad errors in judging the market and my business dried up. As I was now married with children I could not wait to rebuild my business as wedding bookings are typically years in advance, so I took another job becoming manager to a local tyre store chain. I did not completely give up photography as I entered my freelance segment and started dabbling in advertising and marketing with the tyre company, also meeting a graphic designer with whom I worked closely, designing ads for the stores.

After an industrial accident I took advantage of more cut-backs and left with enough money to buy a descent kit and this time I was staying. Getting a weekly income was the hardest part of my photography careers so I targeted the local news media having had a calling card from the ads placed with them (wink!! Wink!!).

In the beginning there was a lot more newspapers and local news sheets than exist today so I was somewhat lucky, in one form or another only three of eleven have survived as weekly titles even if they changed both title and ownership a few times.

So here I am, still technically freelance but “permanent freelance” to Cork’s biggest free circulation newspaper, “Inside Cork” and I also do regular assignments for the “Evening Echo” and a scattering for the “Irish Examiner” and other Irish nationals. In our freelance capacity we do a variety of work, still including the odd wedding but more commercial, fashion, advertising and modelling work.
A pink flamingo photgraphed in the local wildlife park, FOTA for a feature on the reserve. It made a cover shot in that week's issue.

D1x & 70~200AFS/VR
Miss Cork for Miss Ireland. 2003Miss Cork, Elaine Ranahan from Bishopstown represented Scotts Bar Oliver Plunkett Street at the Miss Cork for Miss World competition at Rochestown Park Hotel run by Assets Model Agency Cork and Dublin

D100 & 70~200AFS/VR
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Emial gbee@indigo.ie