Making a career from a life-long passion

It is often said that if a person does something they love they will never work a day in their life. Elizabeth Toher is the living, breathing example of that. A renowned photographer based in Cong, she turned her passion into a hugely successful career. She is in huge demand for wedding photography, but also has a deep love for capturing landscape images of her beloved Cong. So much so that she published a book of stunning local images in 2021.

We sit down in her kitchen to talk about her career to date and her hopes for the future and it is hard to not be infected by her love for what she does.

Angelina: Elizabeth, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

Elizabeth: I’m from Cong, which I always say to everybody is the most beautiful village in the world. Never left, born and bred here. I have such a love for it. Throughout the changing seasons, for me, it has so many memories because I grew up here. I grew up playing in the area. I settled down here. My children then played in the same areas that I played in as a child. It’s just such a special place to live. I always knew I’d never leave Cong. Quite happily, I never had to. As a young child, I remember playing in Ashford. I had my first kiss up by a tree in Ashford Castle. I’m still with that same guy.

Angelina: Photography wasn’t your first career though Elizabeth?

Elizabeth: No, I was a legal secretary in a solicitor’s office for 17 years, and I never would have left. But as fate would have it, we fell pregnant with our youngest who changed our lives for the absolute better. I have two other children, and when they were born you would have got 12 weeks’ maternity leave. But when I was pregnant with Noah, we got six months. I always just wanted to be a mum. That was my thing. Just to have the dinners, the snuggles, the cuddles. It was when Noah was 11 months old that I was taking photos of the kids because I was home all the time.

Angelina: Was that passion something that was in you from a young age or was it something that evolved when you had children?

Elizabeth: I think it’s a mixture of both. When we went on the school tour to Dublin Zoo and we had the old cameras with the film - and you put the little cube on top - I was always the one with the extra roll of film. I think then when Matthew and Mia were born, it just, for me, was the perfect medium to capture them as they crawled, took their first steps, teething, etc. There’s something so emotive about a picture. I’m a huge believer that when you capture a photograph, you should be able to see the emotion in it, whether you know the people or not.

Angelina: So you were taking photos for yourself but it evolved a little then?

Elizabeth: It evolved a little bit because, I suppose, I was just taking photos of my own children, and then one day, they were rebelling a little. A friend of mine came and she had two little girls. I was like, ‘Can I borrow your girls because I’ve got a wooden duck and two pink dresses and want to do some photos?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, of course you can.’

I was taking portraits of them and she had put them up on her Facebook. Then I was in the supermarket one day and this woman came up and she went, ‘Are you Elizabeth Toher? I saw the photographs you did for a friend. I’d love it if you take mine.’

Initially, I refused. I told her it was just a hobby. I was genuinely embarrassed, but a week later, she contacted me again and said, ‘Please, I really like what you do. I don’t want studio photographs. I’d love something in the woods.’ My husband Jarlath said, ‘Well, what have you to lose? Try it and see.’

Before I took the photographs, I was a solid week nervous. But once I was out in the woods and I had the camera in my hand, and you can just see the magic around children, you can see the light, and it’s like I was transported.

It grew for me from then. It grew organically. I’m self-taught, and so I often feel the imposter syndrome if there’s another photographer in the room with me, and they might say, ‘Oh, she’s doing this all wrong.’ But I shoot emotionally. I don’t look at the technicalities of my camera. Don’t get me wrong. I know how to do it properly. But I’m not so busy looking at the technical side of my camera that I’m missing the moment that’s in front of me, and it’s everywhere.

Angelina: Your passion for it is so evident Elizabeth.

Elizabeth: How can you not be passionate when you have all of these moments in front of you? If you’re asked to be a wedding photographer, it’s a huge honour. People are investing so much emotionally, and so much financially. Do they not deserve the best? I remember I asked a TY student who was with me, ‘What’s the most important thing about photography?’ She proceeds to ream off about lenses. I said, ‘No, the most important thing about photography is the people in front of you. Your ability to be able to connect with them. If you connect with them, you will get from them what they don’t even realise they’re giving you until after.’

Angelina: You’ve also published a beautiful book of landscape photos from Cong.

Elizabeth: I suppose Covid hugely impacted my business, decimated it overnight. My husband works in a local hotel and we found ourselves 10 months out of work.

I didn’t even know you could get such a thing as a holiday payment break from your mortgage because we always worked and we always met our way. Then all of a sudden, the world came to this huge pivotal stop. But there’s a blessing in everything because we had gotten so busy that I was wondering, ‘How do I pull back a little?’

We got through Covid. I remember one day I was walking through Cong Woods and I thought, ‘I’ve been taking photographs of Cong for as long as I can remember, and there are hundreds of folders and hard drives. Why don’t I just make a coffee-table book of Cong?’

The amazing thing is when I went to put this book together, I’ve had most of these images for years. But, there are little stories that I learned as a child. One of them was that Lady Ardilaun would never have afternoon tea unless she could have the water from Teach Aille. I thought these stories were going to die out, these little nuggets of information. I put those in the book as well because that’s what I grew up listening to. The only thing I can say to anybody is if they pick up my book CONG, it is my love letter to Cong.

Angelina: You also have a space in Cong to exhibit your wares?

Elizabeth: I do. I have a beautiful studio in the centre of Cong, and it contains a mix of landscapes.

But then I also do quite a lot of gallery and studio work in there. We’re actually getting geared up now for the Christmas mini-sessions. We’re doing those in November.

The studio is fantastic. It’s great because I’m starting to deviate into more of a portraiture in a different direction than what I’m normally known for. I’m having fun playing with that before I actually launch it and show it.

Angelina: You are the resident photographer for Ashford Castle as well.

Elizabeth: My first ever job was up in Ashford Castle as a chambermaid. It’s amazing to come back now and to be called the resident photographer, to have worked with members of the royal family, to have worked with the President of China, to have worked with some of the most famous people in the world, but they’re the exact same as you and I.

They want their happy moments captured. Every time you meet somebody, you learn something new from them and you take it away and you’re constantly evolving.

Angelina: Are there other areas you’d like to branch out into?

Elizabeth: Well, I have been asked a good few times to perhaps consider giving photography classes.

Some people like portraits, and some people like landscapes. I really am thinking of the idea of doing landscape workshops because I think anybody with a camera can take an amazing picture in Cong, because no matter where you turn, the light is there, and the foliage is there. I think that perhaps I will explore it a little bit more.

Angelina: What advice would you give to people who have a passion but are maybe a little bit apprehensive to explore it or pursue it?

Elizabeth: Go for it. Don’t overthink it. I am the world’s worst overthinker. Don’t worry about what other people think.

Don’t look online at what other people are doing. Do your own thing. Because oftentimes, comparison is the thief of joy, and you’re looking at somebody thinking, ‘I can never take something like that.’

If you doubt yourself a little, doubt is a good thing too because it helps push us forward to continually try and better ourselves.

But I would just say do it. Just jump in