Thursday, September 9, 2010

Photography and the most ancient civilization on the planet

As I walked into the cool gallery from a brisk autumn afternoon, I was confronted with walls full of large frames that housed the sweeping, panoramic photography of Ken Duncan. The well-known, internationally acclaimed photographer specializes in magnificent landscapes that capture both the shy morning sunlight and the bold, artificial lights of Sydney at night, and everything in between. As soon as I walked in, I felt as if I had entered into a photographic version of a Thomas Kinkade shrine, there were even scripture verses on plaques on the walls of the gallery.

Duncan is not afraid to admit to his religion, it is a part of his work. In fact, he sees it as essential to his work. He acknowledges Romans 1:20 as his philosophy, “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." Without God, there would be no world for Duncan to photograph; he sees the story of creation resonating in his photographs and feels a deep connection to God through the landscapes that he captures.

Hanging on one of the walls was an image called “Moroka Hut, Vic”, which pictured a small, run-down dwelling with a fire burning outside of it. The smoke from the fire drifts up into the first rays of the sunrise, veiling the view of the trees behind. Next to the image is a small plaque, on which Duncan, in his own words describes the location of the photograph, and then branches from there into the significance he sees in it. The hut is a place of history; it continues to stand in its spot no matter who comes by or through it. It is a vision of the interconnectedness of the past and the present, in a place like that, Duncan can see how the events of former times melt into the events of the future.

Each of his large prints hanging on the wall, not only “Moroka Hut”, has beside it a small white card describing the location and the story behind it. Nature is all a giant symbol pointing straight to the heavens for Duncan, and it is important to him that his viewers are aware of it. The importance of the story behind his work harkens back to a form of art much older than photography. It goes back much further than the day Captain Cook claimed the land of New South Wales for the British Empire. The aboriginal peoples of Australia developed artwork as a way to tell their stories, and the gallery revealed to me the similarities between the work of Duncan and the art that has become a legacy of those prehistoric people.

I walked into the Original & Authentic Aboriginal Art Gallery after browsing through Duncan’s fantastically perfect landscapes, simply out of curiosity. The paintings were done on large canvases, all abstract images. I looked for a short time, and learned from the manager that the paintings were more than abstract. They were stories in themselves, bursting with symbols. He showed me one that was an aerial view of the desert, another that was a seascape. The art of incorporating a story, however subtly, into the art, reminded me of what I had just seen in the gallery of Ken Duncan. Not only this, but Duncan’s use of bright, vibrantly saturated colors, his attention to patterns and his use of symbolist images was all very similar to the aboriginal paintings in the gallery.

I was struck by the juxtaposition of the relatively new art of photography and the ancient methods of the aboriginal people, so similar in the things they are trying to communicate, and yet so different in how they look. The melding of past and present and future that Duncan commented on in “Moroka Hut” was brought once again to my attention. With this thought, I smiled, and was reminded of one last idea from Duncan about the significance of his photograph, “Forrest Lords, Werrikimbe National Park, NSW”: “The very shedding of bark speaks of nature’s constant regeneration; man’s destructive ways are not always the end of the story. The rebirth of life through nature’s cycle of seasons and years gives hope to us all.”



Sources:

Ken Duncan Gallery, 73 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney, NSW 2000
http://www.kenduncan.com/

Original & Authentic Aboriginal Art Gallery, 79 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney, NSW 2000
http://www.authaboriginalart.com.au/