Light and Movement

EARTH'S MOVING LIGHT SHOW
Artist / Photographer Vincent Brady

Vincent Brady refers to himself as "a traveling wannabe 21st Century photographer".

When I first viewed a still image of his planetary panorama - Devils Tower and The Heavens, Wyoming - it brought to mind another Vincent - Van Gogh - who, in 1889 painted, The Starry Night. Later, I found an image of Mr. Brady in front of a mural depicting, in part, the Van Gogh painting. As I delved further into the biography and statements made by Mr. Brody, the relationship to Van Gogh seems only mildly applicable.

©Vincent Brady

In his biography, Mr. Brady states that he loves "to be far away from city lights shooting the night sky on clear moonless nights. The night is full of mystery and wonder (and) I have found no feeling like that of having an unobstructed view of distant stars while being in amazing locations."

©Vincent Brady

Mr. Van Gogh painted, en plein air, attempting to find just the right stroke of paint to capture light falling upon and reflected by an object, a flower, a star. Mr. Brady's passion parallels that of the historic post-impressionist painter to a point, in that he also captures, on site, "the light that is hard to see and just beyond the naked eye." While the latter artist's quest was a struggle, emotionally, Mr. Brady's path is one which radiates positivity and wonder - illustrated in his description of "working" with fireflies as subject:

"So these creatures are really cool. I don't know if you've ever noticed them. We call them fireflies or lightning bugs, but they aren't a fly or a bug. They are beetles, and there's over a 1000 different species of them. Some get in sync when they blink and some don't even light up at all. In most cases the males are the ones flying around blinking while the female blinks from a leaf or branch. They munch on small snails and such when they are in the glowworm stage of their life, they don't seem to eat anything in their short 24 hour to 7 day adult life, however after the mating it's not uncommon for the female to devour the male. They don't bother you or bite you, not a pest by any means… Fireflies just bless you with their presence, light up, make love, and call it a life."

©Vincent Brady

To be enveloped within subject matter - to feel a part of it - one with it - is where art resides. Much like an inventor using everyday materials to develop a thing entirely new, an artist develops a technique, a process, over a certain course of time, using trial and error until the desired effect is manifested. Always experimenting, searching and stretching beyond his limits, Brady's personal process is touched upon as he states:

"While experimenting with different photography tricks and techniques back in 2012, I was shooting 360 degree panoramas in the daytime and long exposures of the stars streaking in the sky at night. It suddenly became clear that the potential to combine the two techniques could be a trip! Since the Earth is rotating at a steady 1,040 mph I created a custom rig of 4 cameras with fisheye lenses to capture the entire night-sky in motion. Thus the images show the stars rotating around the north star as well as the effect of the southern pole as well and a 360 degree panorama of the scene on Earth. Each camera is doing nonstop long exposures, typically about 1 minute consecutively for the life of the camera battery. Usually about 3 hours. I then made a script to stitch all the thousands of these panoramas into this time-lapse."

The dynamic activity of our planet, as illustrated by stars in continual revolution or daubs of light, floating in space, resembling a hyper-active Larry Poons' painting - nature's elements and creatures in movement, create a world where artist and subject are as one.

©Vincent Brady

As I viewed each video, I was transported into the sphere of the photographer. I felt the dynamic quality of nature and its rhythms. Ultimately I was captivated by the work of Vincent Brady.

For more information, and to view videos, please visit:
Vincent Brady's website
Music by Brandon McCoy
All photographs on this page are copyrighted by Vincent Brady. Please contact Mr. Brady, directly, if planning to publish his work. Thanks.