Braided River I, Iceland, 2008

I made this image of an Icelandic braided river during the summer of 2008 while en route to Greenland to finish up the North/South Series. I was field-testing some new digital capture devices and was eager to experiment with the increased mobility.  Having already worked hand held from the deck of a boat for the iceberg images of this series, the aerial vantage point seemed like a natural progression. I found a local pilot who was experienced in aerial photography and simply asked him to show me something beautiful. We took off from a black lava runway in the south east of the country and within minutes he started doing a hard banked turn over a this beautiful braided river.  He said this was his favorite and I would get some great photographs here. So, for the next 20 minutes, we corkscrewed up and down while I made images out of the small Cessna’s open window.

In this instance, the river is still accepting tributaries but also separating into convergent (major) streams before re-converging.  On one level, I am interested in this image for it’s overt beauty. On another, I love how the braided river serves as one of life’s great metaphors. As a diagram, our lives do not follow a simple system of linear development. Instead, it’s a complex and dynamic system including convergence, symbiosis and hybridization. As biologist Lynn Margulis once stated, “ …(Life) is a material process, surfing over matter like a strange slow wave.”  

-David Burdeny

David Burdeny initiated his career with the Jennifer Kostuik Gallery in 2001 and has been exhibiting his images from the world over, including Antarctica, Iceland, Brazil, China, Burma, Cambodia, France, Italy, Canada and the USA. Known for his finely composed photographs, Burdeny has spent the past 25 years exploring a variegated photographic Landscape ranging from minimal seascapes, ornate European interiors to abstract aerial images. Widely collected in Canada, the USA, Asia and Europe, the sheer beauty of David’s images has firmly placed him within the realm of Canada’s most sought after photo-based artists. Burdeny has an innate curiosity for new subjects and themes, producing over 20 themed photographic series. Be it mounting a camera beneath a self-built drone, shooting from the deck of an Antarctic bound icebreaker, or waiting for an ocean tide to advance, he faithfully embeds his own formal signature into each and every image, further expressing a life long passion for the built environment and the camera’s interpretation of it.

David Burdeny’s Masters in Architecture and Interior Design background combined with his upbringing in the vast Canadian prairies provides the template for his keen technical ability, enduring patience and minimalist aesthetic.