Shorelines. Influenced stylistically by photographers before him, such as Michael Kenna and Hiroshi Sugimoto, the artist purposefully photographs in poor light and near darkness. He uses unusually long exposures to see that which our eyes can not.
Shorelines
Born in Winnipeg (1968), Manitoba Canada, David Burdeny has degrees in both Interior
design and a Masters in Architecture. At the age of 12, David started to photograph
the prairie landscape and make his own black and white prints in a makeshift
darkroom that also served as his bedroom closet. Primarily self taught, his
architecture and design background greatly influences his penchant for simple
exacting photographs of sky, horizon and the marks humankind leaves behind.
Influenced stylistically by photographers before him, such as Michael Kenna and
Hiroshi Sugimoto, David purposefully photographs in poor light and near darkness. He
uses unusually long exposures to see that which our eyes can not. Moving beyond the
literal, his images have been described as ominous, haunting, beautiful and
meditative.
In addition to working as an artist, David is owned by two dogs and practices
architecture design Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. His images have been shown
across Canada and the USA and are featured in several prominent corporate
collections such as Sprint and many private collections across the USA, Canada, Asia
and Europe.
Artist Statement
Made along the shorelines of Japan, Northern France, and the Pacific Northwest this
recent body of work thematically continues my interest in the thresholds that divide
and connect the sea to land. Through these journeys I attempt to communicate a
universality or homogeneity in these disparate locations.
Embedded between the natural and domestic, these landscapes are often found at the
periphery of parking lots, highways, urban parks, and public beaches. Each day these
spaces are made and unmade and I am drawn to them for the weightlessness that
lingers after activity ceases.
I'm fascinated with the quality of light and the spatial immensity the ocean
possesses. I have an enormous reverence for feeling so small in the presence of
something so vast, where perspective, scale, time and distance momentarily become
intangible. My photographs contemplate that condition, and through their
reductiveness, suggest a formalized landscape we rarely see. The glory lies not in
the act of this removal or reduction, but in the experience of what is left -
sublime experience located in ordinary space: a slowly moving sky, the sun moving
across a boulders surface or seafoam swirling around a pylon.
Exposed onto large format black and white film under the soft light of dusk and
dawn, the shutter is held open for several minutes at a time, recording the ocean
and sky as it continuously repositions itself on the negative, a process both
dependent and vulnerable to chance. The resultant image is an accretion of past and
present. Each moment is layered over the moment immediately preceding it - a single
image that embodies the weight of cumulative time and unending metamorphosis.
Young Gallery
75b, ave. Louise - 1050 BrusselsHours: 11 am - 6:30 pm Tuesday to Saturday