Inspiration
The sky is a space that is always above us. Somewhere that we can connect with at any point of the day and do not have to travel far to see. It is always around us in its state of flux which is not too dissimilar to our minds. The Oxford definition of the sky is “the space above the earth that you can see when you look up, where clouds and the sun, moons and stars appear”. The sky can bring us many things, it is a part of controlling the temperature, rain, wind, rainbows, lighting, thunder, snow and a space for birds and insects. It is most probably one of the most powerful elements within our system and something that is way beyond our control.
Synonyms of the sky include joy and happiness. Also the idea of heaven and the gateway to it often comes from looking up at the sky. In religion the sky has been seen as a god, In Greek mythology, Zeus is the god of the sky and Jupiter is the Roman god.
The sky is something that we have used as a tool of navigation in history. Celestial navigation has been able to take explorers around the world and bring them home. Using the Sun, Moon and stars to find your position and work out the direction of travel.
It is a tool that lots of people use and most probably don’t realise. Something that is always above our heads and may even control what mood we are in. The sun is a powerful source of heat for us, as well at vitamin D which we need to live a healthy life.
Silence can be found within the sky every minute of the day. It is accessible to everyone and does not take much time out of your day in order to reach moments of peace and silence. It is something that is seen in everyone of my photographs and perhaps overlooked as it is never the focus point of the images that I capture. I now plan to capture the sky as it is, on its own and isolate it from the landscape that is around me.
My images of the night sky are within my selection of final images. They are the only images that I have taken of the night sky and I think that the initial viewing of the images will make the viewer think about what the meaning is behind my body of work. For me, the meaning is simple. I took these photographs on a calm and silent night, when you are shooting the sky at night you need to be in a quiet place away from light pollution. I was on the beach when I shot these photographs with the sea crashing next to my feet and the sky lit up by the stars. Moments like these are the reason I go out and take photographs. There was no other human around me, just me and the natural world around me. A space which for a moment politics and superficial matters do not exist, a space where silence is the centerpiece of the physical and mental state that I am in.
For me, when I look at the sky it connects me with all the previous times I have had the same experience in different places in the world. You could be anywhere when you look up and believe that is a special moment which can connect you with yourself. The amazement that the night sky can give you bring joy and happiness as well as a level of contentment with the space that you are in.
These photographs have captured moments which the human eye cannot. You cannot see the stars moving above you...but they are, and the camera is able to capture it when you hold a long exposure. The camera then allows you to connect with the night sky in a completely different way compared to when you are standing and looking up. The moment and movement is slowed down and captured as the light travels through the camera. It opens you up to new moments which are captured in a different way to the human eye. The silence that is captured is different to the one that you experience in the moment, I am sharing with the viewer a perspective that their eyes cannot see and exposing them to a moment that I experienced.
After shooting these images I needed to edit them quite a bit to bring out the detail and light from the stars. As of all my photographs the images were converted into black and white as they were shot on my digital camera. I then needed to bring up the exposure and highlights in order to push the light out of the photograph. The three photographs were exposed for 3 minutes and if I were to shoot them again I would try some even longer exposures to see what the results may look like.