These photographs reflect my lifelong interest in Florida and its amazing environments and creatures. As an archaeologist, I have had the good fortune to study and work in many natural Florida landscapes and to consider how people and environment have interacted over thousands of years. The photos are my way of sharing some of the feelings and emotions that natural Florida evokes.
Presenting birds so directly is especially powerful. First, the bird becomes an individual being rather than a distant object; eye contact is established and as the image is created bird and human consider each other consciously. Second, the exquisite biological form that is the result of millions of years of evolution is intimately revealed. In the bill, the wing, the foot, the plumage, the elegance of form follows the necessity of function. Aesthetically, the photographs explore the boundary between representation and abstraction. As they present more detail, they become less the birds we know. Their forms, colors, spaces, textures, and rhythms work strongly together as abstract design.
Beginning in early 2003, I began to explore the possibilities of close-up bird photography, and eventually found a combination of location, equipment, processing and printing that resulted in unusually strong images.
-
- IslBG
