About the Exhibit
Water Songs features images of water in its various forms, its effects on landforms, and its human connection.
In Colin’s words:
“With Water Songs, I have attempted to explore through visual images the value we place on water, both as a utilitarian resource used and abused by human need and profligacy, and as a subject of aesthetic enjoyment and contemplation. Water is both a physical and metaphysical mirror reflecting our place in the universe.”
“The effects of water can be breathtaking even when water is not visible. I try to show its role in the environment; its power to shape rock, to support life, to affect light, to destroy, to create. I want to reveal and celebrate its moods, its colours, its textures, its forms – Water as vapour, liquid, solid; icy and steamy; microscopic and oceanic; inescapable and elusive; abundant and scarce. Look into water and explore yourself.”
Colin was interested in processing the images for this show in a way that emphasizes the various "moods" that water assumes.
“Water, in the absence of other surfaces being diffused or reflected by it, is colourless. I therefore wanted to direct the observer to the forms, lines and textures water takes rather than colour. Some images looked best to me in monochrome, so I present them as black and white prints. For most of the others, I desaturated the colour, a process that took deliberate effort as it runs counter to my natural instincts, and selectively increased light and dark contrast in order to give the images the distinctive quality I was looking for.”
The majority of the images in Water Songs were taken in Nova Scotia, but several were taken in the American Southwest and a couple in Europe. The very different aesthetics of these images creates a dynamic balance to the Exhibit.
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