A few years ago my little sister Nicole went to London, the big bad city, and I missed her. A hole had opened in my life and I suffered heartache, although I know it was the right decision and I am incredibly proud of her. Everyday I would think of her and, as I had associated her with owls for some time, every time I saw an owl I would think of her. If I were religious I would be sending her a small prayer for each owl, and this habit grew until I started taking photos of the owls, perhaps selfishly trying to fill that gap, but I also had a vague plan to collect the owls to give her. As I live a mostly daytime existence in urban Ireland there are no live owls in my collection, these are the result of over a year of snapping owls. I never specifically went looking for them, they were all owls that I came across in my day to day life, and I can see patterns therefore in the type of shops I visited, a trail of places and times and a history of the moments I would miss my sister. There is probably some interesting sociological study charting human-kinds use of animal motifs to embellish the items we surround ourselves with and, if so, this would be a visual side note. Owls adorn the expected and the unexpected, from tee shirts to underwear and books to napkins. I have to thank the people I stopped, on the street and in shops, so I could snap their necklaces and I have to apologize for all the fuzzy photos as several shops discourage photos, and many were sneakily taken. A special thanks to my mother who aided me on my quest and that is her hand in the background of several shots, including the one of the owl puppet. Please enjoy Owls for Nicole.