Former Hot Press Art Director Paula T. Nolan wins Creative Sustainability Award

Photographer Paula T. Nolan has won the ESB Creative Sustainability Award at the 2025 Business to Arts Awards.

Nolan is currently the National Library of Ireland (NLI) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) photographer-in-residence. From 1990 through to 1997, she worked as a designer and Art Director at Hot Press, with many of the covers she designed featuring in the Hot Press Covers Exhibition.

For her winning project, ReViewing Ireland, Nolan travelled across all 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland over the course of a year, using only an e-bike and public transport.

Her photographs cover at least two environmental topics in each county, as well as both landscapes and portraits of those involved. She also recreated historical photographs from the National Library archive to portray environmental change over time.

"My primary ambition on each trip was to get the most interesting, informative and beautiful photographs possible," said Nolan of the project.

"One of my favourite photographs is a huge mountain of metal glinting in the sun with a blue sky and wispy clouds behind it, so it’s not just about the classically beautiful. I loved taking portraits of people, and tried to do this after they had been interviewed, when we had gotten to know each other a little and were more relaxed."

The National Library called ReViewing Ireland "a powerful visual journey that’s part documentary, part adventure, and part environmental time capsule."

Some highlights of the project selected by Nolan include visiting the woodland preservation initiative Hometree in Co. Clare and the SourcedBySab vintage and sustainable streetwear store in Co. Donegal.

In Co. Waterford, she joined the Environmental Protection team monitoring Waterford Estuary on their angling boat, as they collected water samples.

In Laois, she encountered the severe air and noise pollution problem in Abbeyleix, and compared current views of the town to old photographs taken before the increase in heavy goods vehicles passing through that part of the county.

"I learnt to run with all manner of unexpected twists and turns, which made it a true adventure," said Nolan, adding a quote from David Bowie: "Nothing worth doing happens when you're completely comfortable."

Learn more about ReViewing Ireland here.

Nolan attended the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in the late 1970s to early 1980s and went on to work as a graphic designer, with a speciality in designing for magazines and books.

As Art Director with Hot Press, she worked closely with Philomena Lynott for Lynott's book, My Boy: The Philip Lynott Story. She designed many beloved covers of the magazine, some of which appear in the Hot Press Covers Exhibition.

Her photograph 'Napkins: The Jesuit Community, Leeson Street' was selected by the State Art Collection for the ‘Portraits of a Nation’ exhibition at the Farmleigh Gallery, and was later included in the Office of Public Works and Northern Ireland Civil Service Collection annual touring exhibition.

Other photographs by Nolan have been chosen for the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) Annual Exhibition in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022.

She is currently the managing director of PEN Graphic Design, where she specialises in book design.

She is based at the Paul Kane Gallery in Dublin.