The NI Gladiator photographer rubbing shoulders with Paul Mescal

Fermanagh photographer Aidan Monaghan with Gladiator 2 star Paul Mescal at the World Premiere in Leicester Square, London

It's a long way from rural County Fermanagh to walking the red carpet at one of the biggest film premieres in the world, but that's the journey one man from Ederney has travelled.

On Wednesday photographer Aidan Monaghan rubbed shoulders with the stars of Sir Ridley Scott's epic blockbuster Gladiator II.

He took the official photographs on set which are adorning billboards across the world.

What's it like to hang out with Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington as they take over Leicester Square in London for night to promote the film?

Aidan tells BBC News NI it was "incredible".

"No words can really describe it," he adds.

Monaghan's pictures aim to "capture the essence" of the movie for audiences

'Capturing the essence'

This was Aidan's fourth time working with the legendary film director.

Aidan, who has worked professionally as a photographer for 15 years, says that working on the official stills for a huge production like this involves "capturing the essence of the actual movie that sells it to the public".

Aidan's pictures of Gladiator II have appeared on huge billboards all around the world, including on Sunset Strip and Hollywood Boulevard.

Seeing your work on such a scale, the follow-up to the Oscar winning Gladiator released in 2000 and starring Russell Crowe, is "surreal," according to the Fermanagh man.

In London he could see his work from the hotel room overlooking Leicester Square and outside Waterloo Station.

As well as on huge billboards his work has been on the cover of the recent editions of Total Film and Empire magazine, which he says is a huge honour.

Love of Hollywood films

Paul Mescal plays the illegitimate son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus, Lucius

There was a sense of destiny for Aidan working on huge Hollywood productions.

Thanks to his late father Brian he grew up with a love of film.

"At home with dad and my brother we would have watched classic films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Lawrence of Arabia," Aidan tells BBC News NI.

On a previous shoot for Ridley Scott's The Martian he stayed in Aqaba, where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed, which he says was special.

Aidan's father died in January of this year.

Aidan feels he was very much with him in spirit and the work was "for him" in a sense.

Golden era for Irish actors

This is, of course, a golden era for Irish actors with Paul Mescal, Cillian Murphy, Andrew Scott, Barry Keoghan and Saiorse Ronan all featuring in recently critically acclaimed films.

This is something which Aidan feels "incredibly proud" of as he says it's up to the likes of him to support this talent as best as he can.

From architecture to photography

Although he has a life-long love of film Aidan trained as an architect and after graduating from The Mackintosh School of Architecture he helped design buildings such as The Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich centre in West Belfast.

After shooting stills for local theatre companies such as Kabosh his new career really took off.

So after working on one of the biggest films of the year what's next?

Aidan is due to start work on an Apple film in the New Year.

In the meantime he's still basking in the glow of Gladiator and one man's journey from Fermanagh to the top of the film industry is complete.