Photography places biodiversity in flight

In the stillness of Antarctica, a lone penguin stands dead-center on the ice, with a jagged peak rising within the background. Its reflection shimmers faintly on the darkish water beneath.

With wings barely outstretched, its white stomach faces the digital camera whereas its head tilts subtly, as if locking eyes with the viewers via one darkish orb.

This quiet, significant second is captured by nature and wildlife photographer Zhang Lianjun, higher identified by his pseudonym Bianyuan (“Edge”), and featured in his newest solo exhibition on the Guardian Art Center in Beijing from June 6 to 9, throughout which a sequence of occasions have been additionally held, together with photographer sharing periods and thematic science lectures.

The present introduced collectively 72 avian pictures, chosen from greater than 1.3 million that Zhang has taken over 36 years within the subject.

Through his lens, birds are by no means merely topics — they turn into metaphors for solitude, migration, kinship, and the interconnected pure world all of us share.

Upon getting into the exhibition, one can see a crested ibis hidden among the many branches of deep-red autumn leaves, its white feathers contrasting with the nice and cozy reds in an interaction of cool and heat tones; a close-up of a swan’s neck partially submerged because it geese its head into the water, forming a form resembling the Chinese calligraphic stroke “一” (one); and a black-and-white {photograph} by which a flock of birds in flight is rendered as ethereal blurs scattered throughout the darkish, intertwining strains of withered branches, as quiet as a conventional Chinese ink portray.

“There are no Photoshop-manipulated images in the entire exhibition,” Zhang explains. Instead, he makes in depth use of strategies corresponding to gradual shutter speeds, panning, and a number of exposures to seize the dynamic moments of birds in flight or gliding via water.

Zhang, born in 1963, turned fascinated with avian pictures in 1989.

His travels have taken him to the North Pole and Antarctica, in addition to to over 100 nature reserves throughout Africa, the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Within China, he has visited greater than 300 chicken breeding, habitat and migration websites.

Looking again, he divides his pictures profession into three phases.

“The first 12 years, I focused on capturing the interplay of light and shadow on birds’ feathers and their flight postures,” Zhang says.

“In the second stage, I aimed to express the relationship between humans and birds through my photographs. In the third stage, I began using my images to convey my own state of mind and philosophical reflections.”

In his newest exhibition, each lone chicken serves as a metaphor for his solo journey in pursuit of birds’ traces, he provides.

“And those flocks of birds,” he says, “express that I am not traveling alone — that there are also social bonds and kinship”.

During his travels over the passing many years, he has additionally witnessed China’s progress in ecological safety firsthand.

In the early Nineties, he remembers, the nation had solely a small variety of nature reserves, with inadequate authorities funding and incomplete related legal guidelines and rules.

“In remote areas, transportation was difficult,” he says, “and sometimes I had to borrow a donkey to carry my equipment, as there was also a lack of strict zoning controls.”

Today, nevertheless, he notes that nature reserves have carried out a tiered administration system consisting of core zones, buffer zones and ecological experiment zones.” Government investment has grown tremendously,” he says,”and responsibilities have been assigned down to the township, village and even every household, with strict prohibitions against destructive behaviors.”

He provides that defending birds and the ecosystem has now turn into a consensus amongst individuals of varied age teams, “forming a positive situation where humans and nature coexist in harmony”.

The exhibition was held as a part of the fifth anniversary celebration of the launch of the Canon Biodiversity Photography Initiative, a charity program that encourages pictures fanatics to doc China’s biodiversity via pictures, increase public consciousness of ecological safety, and help the event of ecological pictures tradition.

Over the previous 5 years, the challenge has attracted greater than 7,000 pictures fanatics. Participants have traveled to 47 cities and visited over 10 nature reserves, producing greater than 60,000 ecological photos capturing practically 1,000 species of nationally protected animals.

“The project has amassed a large volume of high-quality, traceable wild bird images, providing significant supplementary data for avian ecology research and opening an intuitive window for the public to understand the relationship between urbanization and biodiversity,” stated Zhang Zhengwang, chair of the China Ornithological Society.

Zhang Lianjun joined the challenge in 2021.

“I don’t think bird photography is bound by the length of the lens,” Zhang Lianjun says.

“What matters most is how you approach ecology with your heart and enter into a dialogue with living creatures. That, to me, is the most important thing.”

Having spent the higher a part of his life with birds, he was requested what an important lesson they’ve taught him is.

“To fly freely,” he replies with out hesitation.

“Birds have no borders, no national boundaries. The world grants them a green passage wherever they go. This inspires me to view Earth, through my images, as a shared home for all of humanity.”