Beauty in the beast ---- Text and Photos by Michael Kern ---- Like lots of new ideas, it was an accidental discovery that led me to develop my photography into a new artform. I wanted to create a letterhead for my business and settled upon an image of an iguana I had taken. It had a beautiful and striking eye so I focused on that. The problem was, the image needed to span the width of the page, so I mirrored it on itself - and in the process, created a surreal and impactful picture. It won the 2007 Nature s Best Award in the Creative Digital category and still hangs in the Smithsonian Museum, long after the accompanying exhibit ended. That got me thinking - What further potential was there for creating digital artworks from my traditional wildlife portraiture? How far could I push the technique?
Greenbottle blue tarantula Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens My photographic work has always focused on showing the beauty in the beast - snakes, spiders, lizards, creepy crawlies and more. For many, my traditional photographic portraits of these animals are enough and serve that purpose. However, there are still a large number of people who cannot break through the barrier of fear and anxiety they have when looking at a spider or snake... no matter how beautiful. So I have experimented and evolved my work to help these people find that beauty. Through digital manipulation I have attempted to abstract out the reality of the creature, until all that s left is simply nature s color and texture - or, as I like to think, the distilled beauty in the beast. There has been no color manipulation of these images, they are from nature s palate. I believe the forms that are created work at two levels. From afar, the colours and shapes themselves have a spirit. They live and add personality to the space they are in. But when viewed close-up, there is an infinite amount of detail and hidden treasure for the observer to discover. I call this work Abstract Reality.
Eyelash Viper Bothriechis schlegelii Variable bush viper Atheris squamigera
Panther chameleon Furcifer pardalis To technique I use to create these pieces is relatively simple. Start with an image, find the most interesting component, whether it is colour, pattern, texture or all three... crop out that part and, using the new image, experiment and grow the piece... mirror the crop, mirror the mirror, crop the mirror, mirror the mirror, rotate and crop... there is no formula, you just need to watch and guide the evolving piece intuitively. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don t. Whether the end result is art worthy or not, the creative process is fascinating to me. Once I get the piece to what I believe is an interesting point, I stop the abstraction and begin to work the edges, giving the piece more personality. To me, the outer form of the abstraction is almost as important as the inner kaleidoscope.
Patterns are not uncommon in nature, but they are often hidden. Even sounds have geometry, as shown by the study of cymatics, where different frequencies are applied to sand or water to create intricate patterns. When I compare my abstractions to cymatic images, or natural patterns such as snowflakes, I can see common geometric principles. Even though I have complete freedom when I create the pieces, it is as if their construction is governed by the intrinsic harmonic fabrics of nature. Brazilian pinkbloom tarantula Pamphobeteus platyomma Leaf tailed gecko Uroplatus lineatus
Green and black Poison Dart Frog Dendrobates auratus I love creating these pieces and watching how they evolve. The repetitive nature of the process makes it almost meditative. I am both the creator and the observer. My aim is to come up with something uniquely different but the concept itself is not new. The cubism movement, pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in the early 20th Century, shared the same core principle of reducing natural forms to their geometric equivalents. In Cubist artwork, three dimensional objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form. The subject, depicted from a multitude of viewpoints, is represented in a greater context. In a lot of ways, that is exactly what I am doing - with photography rather than paint.
Spiny flower mantis Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii Rhinoceros viper Bitis nasicornis
Pope s tree viper Trimeresurus popeorum A lot of people are unable to get past their almost primeval fears of reptiles, amphibians and arachnids, begging the question: how can we conserve these fascinating animals? The first step in any conservation effort is to engender an appreciation of the species and ecosystems that need saved. I use these images to show the beauty of the animals, without the form which creates the fear. Perhaps, when the viewer s curiosity is aroused by the abstraction, they will be more disposed to think about the reality. That way, these images can help build an appreciation and empathy for species, and a desire to conserve them, that might otherwise be difficult to encourage.
Waglers Temple viper Tropidolaemus wagleri Cobalt poison dart frog Dendrobates tinctorius
Rainbow millipede Aulacobolus rubropunctatus Green tree python Morelia viridis
Angle headed lizard Gonocephalus doriae There is a puzzle aspect to these images, where the viewer tries to guess which animal the abstraction comes from. While the original frame is helpful in answering the mystery of the piece, I usually keep the pairs of images separate, allowing the viewer to appreciate the abstraction anonymously and without bias. Their impressions may not be the same if the source of the piece is known from the outset - particularly if it is a creature the viewer fears.
Leaf tailed gecko Uroplatus sp. Bearded dragon Pogona vitticeps
Common iguana Iguana iguana
Veiled Chameleon Chamaeleo calyptratus My hope is that, once the viewer begins to really look into the detail of each abstract, they will be able to see an edge to the piece; a kind of underlying tension or complexity This is their subconscious detecting and reacting to the primeval fear people have to the original images; they get the sense that there is something there, under the surface, which they are reacting to.
Feather of East African Crowned Crane Balearica regulorum Feather of Victoria crowned pigeon Goura victoria
Feather of Blue crowned pigeon Goura cristata Feather of Blue-andyellow Macaw Ara ararauna
West African green mamba Dendroaspis viridis The images in this series will carry on evolving as I continue to create them. Like the individual pieces, the overall process is a journey. I am now expanding the subject matter to other areas in nature (most of my work to date has focused on my exotics images - reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates). I also hope to start experimenting with printing techniques for the abstracts. fabrics, wallpapers and backlit Durable Transparencies. Where this journey may lead, I don t yet know. But it is a path I can t help but follow.
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