an ACT Government arts facility
HUW DAVIES GALLERY
14–31 October 2010
Brindabella
Ian Copland
Brindabella is Ian Copland’s fourth HUW DAVIES
GALLERY exhibition in as many years. Like three of
those exhibitions, Brindabella examines themes
close to home. People, shown in early 2008, dealt
with universal themes but had no specific
Canberra connection.
Copland’s Structures was an outstanding first
exhibition based on the architecture of three of
Canberra’s national institutions. He focused on
the people and streetscape of Garema Place,
more than just a physical location for generations
of Canberra people, in last year’s Garema.
Copland’s exceptional compositional skills and
strong feeling for colour were demonstrated in all
of the earlier exhibitions.
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This fourth exhibition is very different to Copland’s
earlier work. It could be seen as experimental
because, departing from his earlier instinctive
picture making, this exhibition works through new
ideas to arrive at an evocation of landscape as
playground, predator and protector. In his
exhibition proposal, Copland wrote this about the
Brindabellas:
The Brindabella Mountains west of Canberra do not
immediately conjure images of an iconic landscape.
They are not the tallest, starkest most beautiful
mountains.
To many Canberrans however they have very special
meanings. Brindabella sunsets are rich in colour and
meaning. The 2003 fires came from the Brindabellas
to wreak havoc on the outskirts of the city. Day trips
into the Brindys have long been a particular pleasure.
To us they are iconic. Despite the 2003 experience we
feel the mountains give us a sense of protection.
Copland has chosen to render the Brindabella
landscape in black and white, to explore the use
of chiaroscuro—a tonality alien in most of nature
but used to perfection by the painters Caravaggio
and Rembrandt in the sixteenth and seventeenth
century, in the film noir masterpieces of the mid
twentieth century and the work of many
photographers, including Diane Arbus and Annie
Leibovitz and, closer to home, Harold Cazneaux.
In his Artist Statement Copland explains in
considerable detail the process he has worked
through to produce Brindabella.
PhotoAccess is pleased to show Ian Copland’s
meditation on our iconic Brindabellas in the HUW
DAVIES GALLERY at the Manuka Arts Centre.
David Chalker
Supported by the ACT and Commonwealth Governments
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Artist statement
Brindabella Chiaroscuro—A Sense of Place
This study is one of monochrome landscape images of the Brindabella Ranges west of Canberra. The aim of the project
is to use the concepts of ‘landscape as artistic genre’ and ‘landscape as pure form’ to convey a sense of place. The
particular artistic technique being explored is chiaroscuro—literally meaning light-dark. In the visual arts it is how light
and shade are best arranged in an image to provide the most striking pictorial effect. In landscape photography as pure
form the focus is on pursuing forms, shapes and contents that express more than just a description of the scene. A
sense of place is achieved by showing a whole that fits together by isolating and presenting single fragments that
represent the essential components of the whole. The narrative that is the Brindabellas is made up of a collection of
images from across the regions, using a range of content and perspectives.
The approach used was firstly to survey the area to get a ‘sense of place’. To convey this sense it was necessary to take
images from a range of vantage points. Using different perspectives and subjects ensured the place that is the
Brindabellas is presented as a whole. The idea was to provide the viewer with enough information to form their own
perspective. This is about a wide view rather than a focus on one aspect of the landscape. The result is a collection of
images that include wide views, selected vignettes, nature in its pure form and landscapes that include man’s influence.
Research in landscape photography for this project started with the work of Ansell Adams and his zone system that
provides photographers with a systematic method of precisely defining the relationship between the way they visualize
the photographic subject and the final results. The research concluded with the work of Lee Friedlander, in particular his
1990s landscape work. While Friedlander is best known for his ’social landscapes’ he also has a substantial body of
natural landscapes which have been described as presenting places as kinds of living works of art. The photographs are
a hint, just a blink at a piece of the real world. The images of Edward and Brett Weston also provide inspiration for this
project. In particular their use of form and shape to express thoughts and not just a straight pictorial representation. The
Pictorialists, such as Cazneaux, were also considered, but while some pictorial content was incorporated the soft focus
approach was not used in this project.
While Adams’ systematic approach to the use of light and tonal graduations was the initial inspiration for presenting the
Brindabellas in monochrome further reading and research revealed the artistic technique of chiaroscuro. This presented
an approach to image creation and presentation that provides an artist’s rather than a scientist’s viewpoint. This
technique will be described below.
Landscape as a concept sits within the discourse about what is ‘nature’. There are at least two major perspectives in this
discourse. There is ‘Nature’ which stands for a primordial force—some form of creative energy—often referred to as
mother nature. The second perspective sees nature as the flora, fauna, mountains, rocks, weather of the natural world.
The practice of landscape photography, while not confined to representing the natural world only, does attempt to
interpret Nature/ nature. Jussim and Lidquist-Cock argue that ‘Landscape is a construct. Like nature, what we call
landscape is defined by our vision and interpreted by our mind.’
The images in this study are based on two perspectives: Landscape as Artistic Genre and Landscape as Pure Form.
Landscape as Artistic Genre
As the title suggests, this is landscape photography based on established artistic techniques. Many thought the
introduction of photography would be the death of painting. On the contrary, however, the two genres developed a
healthy competition that benefitted artists in both forms. For photographers, this meant learning techniques used by the
masters of painting.
Chiaroscuro
One technique that has had a significant influence on photography is chiaroscuro. Chiaroscuro is characterized by strong
contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. In their works the masters
painters, including Rembrandt and Turner, forced the brilliance of the light areas in their paintings by opposing them with
strong darks. This is achieved by placing an object such as the sun adjacent to the darkest part of the painting.
Rembrandt in his portraits would contrast the lightness of the face with things such as black velvet caps.
Light and shade are fundamental in monochrome landscape photography. For example if photographing a distant view
that consists mainly of light tones it is necessary to introduce a dark object in the foreground to provide the contrast
needed to balance the image.
Landscape as Pure Form
‘The aesthetic emotion—the experience of beauty—depends on certain fundamentals common to all the arts: repetition,
variation, contrast and balance.’ ( Jussim and Lidquist-Cock) This is not to say that ‘form’ in landscape photography
should be in some way formulaic. Patterns, repetition, rhythms etc in nature can be and are subject to unpredictability.
Understanding and representing abstract or biomorphic form is just as relevant as understanding and representing
geometric form.
Landscape photography as pure form uses this aesthetic to present both Nature and nature. Exponents such as Edward
and Brett Weston use abstract forms with sharp resolution. Friedlander on the other hand presents disorder—snaring the
viewer with his biomorphic images.
Solo exhibitions
2010
Brindabellas, HUW DAVIES GALLERY, PhotoAccess, Manuka Arts Centre, Canberra, ACT
2009
Garema, HUW DAVIES GALLERY, PhotoAccess, Manuka Arts Centre, Canberra, ACT
2008
People, HUW DAVIES GALLERY, PhotoAccess, Manuka Arts Centre, Canberra, ACT
2007
Structures, HUW DAVIES GALLERY, PhotoAccess, Manuka Arts Centre, Canberra, ACT
Group exhibitions
2010
Access All Areas 2010: The PhotoAccess members show, HUW DAVIES GALLERY, PhotoAccess, Manuka Arts
Centre, Canberra, ACT
2008
Canberra Photographic Society Canberra Centre Exhibition
2006
60 years of Canberra Photographic Society (CPS), Canberra Museum and Gallery, ACT
2005
Canberra Photographic Society Annual Exhibition, Strathnairn Gallery
Awards
2007
Canberra Photographic Society, Commendation, Hedda Morrison Print Portfolio Trophy
Canberra Photographic Society, Winner, Hedda Morrison Print Portfolio Trophy; Winner, Slide of the Year;
Winner, B Grade Slide competition; Commendation, B&W Print of the Year
Associations and memberships
Member, Canberra Photographic Society, Australian Photographic Society, PhotoAccess
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Brindabella 16
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List of works
Inkjet prints on Canson Infinity Rag Photographique
Paper size
$
Brindabella 1 to 16 and 18 to 21
430 x 650 mm or 650 x 430 mm
210
Brindabella 17
900 x 610 mm
360
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HUW DAVIES GALLERY at PhotoAccess, Manuka Arts Centre, Corner Manuka Circle and NSW Crescent, Griffith ACT
tel. 02 6295 7810 www.photoaccess.org.au