Birds and Nature - A Photographer’s Perspective

Exhibition Review: Photography | Brian Rope

Birds and Nature - A Photographer’s Perspective| Binh Le Thanh

Kyeema Gallery at Capital Wines, Gladstone Street, Hall | 7 March - 7 April 2024

This is Binh Le Thanh’s first exhibition. It essentially falls into two parts – one is all about birds in nature. The other set of images are astrophotography – also known as astronomical imaging – which is the photography or imaging of astronomical objects, celestial events, or areas of the night sky.

The artist’s website reveals that he grew up surrounded by books about the famous photographers Art Wolfe and Frans Lanting, which he says brought him closer to nature. Nowadays he likes nothing better than spending hours “in the woods” watching birds and listening to the sound of the wind in the trees while taking in all the beauty of the wilderness.

When I asked how he got started in photography, Le Thanh told me his parents introduced him to it and encouraged him. Indeed, we learned that we had very similar experiences of picking up and using cameras from the days of our early childhoods.

Le Thanh, says that, for him, photography is about capturing the unique moments and feelings he has experienced with wildlife, the smell in the air, the intense mood within the silence and serenity of nature. In other words, it’s a way of preserving his memories enabling him to revisit those precious moments. His Instagram presence describes him as a nature shooter who happens to love the night sky.

This is a substantial exhibition of good quality framed prints. However, I feel there are too many in the show. Most are hung very close together in the small gallery space, whilst some are hung in various available smaller areas of walls in the wine tasting part of the venue. I suggest the artist would have benefitted from having an experienced curator plan the placement of his works – and to cull them down so that individual works might be better viewed and explored. I would also recommend having speakers at exhibition openings who have a good understanding of photography. That would enable visitors attending to hear some good commentary about the works and the purpose behind them.

Some other excellent photographers active in both fields - birds and astrophotography – have complimented this artist on these artworks. One has said the prints are breathtaking, the colours good and realistic, and the combination of subjects and backgrounds clever and harmonious. Getting the colours right is important to portray birds accurately. All good nature photographers will quickly draw attention to colours that are too saturated or simply not right. I am no expert, but the colours in this artist’s works appear to be spot on to me.

Golden Headed © Bien Le Thanh

Brown Thornbill © Bien Le Thanh

Red Capped Mum © Bien Le Thanh

The astro images are composed very well and reveal the artist’s technical skills. I was told by another gallery visitor who also is into astro photography that one of the locations photographed requires a walk (at night) over uneven ground from a carpark for a good hour. It also has to be the right time of year when specific features will be present in the night sky. Of course, the photographer must also carry all the right gear with which to get the desired image.

Le Thanh has chosen some excellent locations for his astro shots, including a number that feature country dwellings and churches.

Westerman © Bien Le Thanh

St Thomas © Binh Le Thanh

Other astro shots show beautiful landscapes.

Canola near Harden © Binh Le Thanh

So, whether your interests are specifically birds or nature or astro, or photographic art generally, this is an exhibition you can enjoy, whilst also checking out some good quality wines.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

 

Entanglement

 Photomedia Exhibition | Brian Rope

ENTANGLEMENT | NOELENE LUCAS

Canberra Contemporary Art Space | Until 12 June 2022

Noelene Lucas is a video installation artist with a background in sculpture. Her work addresses our land from ecological and historical perspectives. It has been curated into major exhibitions in Australia, Europe and Asia, awarded three major Australia Council grants, Thailand, Paris and two Australia Council Tokyo residencies, the latter one deeply affecting both her life and art practice.

Birds are disappearing. Common wild birds connect us to nature. The chance of seeing a Kookaburra in SE Australia has halved since 1999. Those are just three of the messages presented on some of the video panels in this thought-provoking exhibition by Lucas.

Noelene Lucas, Bird text, 2022, (detail) multi-screen video

Other panels display slowly moving clouds and ocean waters overlaid with words such as Ozone (O3), Halons (CBrClF2), Halogenated Gases – Fluorine (F2), and Black Carbon (PM2.5). Those words are about a colourless unstable toxic gas with a pungent odour and powerful oxidizing properties, unreactive gaseous compounds of carbon with bromine and other halogens known to damage the ozone layer – including a poisonous pale-yellow gas that causes very severe burns on contact with skin, and a climate-forcing agent contributing to global warming.

 

Noelene Lucas, Entanglement, 2022, Multi-screen video installation with sound, Dimensions variable_022

I’m no scientist and had to research the meanings of some words when writing this. Nevertheless, the message about environmental changes and damage had been very clear to me whilst actually viewing the works in the gallery.

Another video panel reminds us – if we need any reminder – that “We are dependent for our wellbeing on the wellbeing of the environment.” And yet another informs us that “Filling the Hunter’s existing 23 massive mine voids will cost $25.3 billion but the government holds only $3.3 billion in bonds.”

 

Noelene Lucas, Entanglement, 2022, Multi-screen video installation with sound, Dimensions variable_008

This well-presented exhibition leaves visitors in no doubt that environmental issues are important and require urgent attention in order to “Save the planet” – words that passed by, overlaid against clouds, on another video panel.

Bird numbers and habitats have dwindled as we have destroyed many forests and wetlands, plus our previously clean air and water. Birds have disappeared as humans have destroyed their life support systems - as well as our own. So, it is most appropriate that there are also several videos of various birds and of water contaminated with drifting litter. The clear message is everywhere as you walk around the exhibition spending time watching the moving imagery.

 

Noelene Lucas, Galah, 2022, (detail) multi-screen video

Central to Lucas’s work is her investigation of the land from both environmental and historical perspectives. Land, birds and water quality in the light of climate change are key to the environmental research. At the base of all her video work is the exploration of time and fleeting moments.

 

Noelene Lucas, Entanglement, 2022, Multi-screen video installation with sound, Dimensions variable_011

Every day we hear or read about unprecedented flood or fires, that glaciers are melting faster and faster, that people’s homes and gardens are being inundated by rising sea levels. We are told there’s yet another crisis then, thankfully, that it’s passed.

We only have to consider the recent flood events in NSW and Queensland to appreciate the truth of those words. More crises do keep occurring and many of us now expect that, as a result of climate change inaction, they will only happen more and more frequently – that we are moving towards creating a world that our descendants do not deserve. If any reminder of the problem is needed this exhibition serves that purpose most effectively. 

Entanglement highlights so many environmental issues and points to our involvement in the climate change crisis. But it also points to where hope resides - in our contact with other life forms, in seeing and valuing and not being indifferent to the damage that has been done.

This review was published in the Canberra Times of 30.05.22 here. It is also on the author's blog here.