About

 

This website showcases the innovative work of pioneering night-photographer Peter Solness. By photographing at night, Peter elicits a rare beauty from these landscapes. Each image is a labour-of-love. They have been meticulously hand-crafted using a technique known generally as 'painting with light', which can take many hours to complete. By working in darkness and leaving the shutter of the camera open for long periods of time, the exposure of each image becomes a subtle blend of ambient moonlight and torchlight. 

This style of image-making is totally unique and represents an unlikely convergence of the technical 'actuality' of photography, with the sensibility of a painter. Respected Australian photographer and writer Robert McFarlane, in his essay for a recent catalogue of these works wrote, 'By making the artistic choice to light each vista, Solness reinvents each scene before him, adding a dream-like nocturnal beauty to every photograph.....  Light doesn’t reflect, so much as emit from each subject - in ways that are similar to Surrealist painters such as Paul Delvaux.... As such they are works of art with two pre-eminent virtues - their natural beauty and this artist’s visible surrender to the peerless mystery of the southern hemisphere night.'

Work on this site largely focuses on the unique landscapes of Sydney, Australia. Implicit within the style and character of these images is a celebration of the priceless value of Sydney's natural environment and how it should be preserved and appreciated. Sydney is a place of unique flora and geography; of beaches, harbours, rivers, tremendous sandstone headlands and a thrilling, wild Pacific Ocean, right on its doorstep. It is this compelling 'Gondwanian' character to the landscape, (which so intrigued the first European settlers here in 1788) that forms the central narrative to these works.

Peter's work is held in many public and private collections, including the National Library Canberra, State Library of NSW, Museum of Sydney and the NSW Parliament collection. A photographer for over 35 years, Peter has undertaken numerous book, exhibition and other creative projects and has achieved many accolades for his work. In 2010 Peter was awarded the prestigious NSW Parliamentary Plein Air Photographic Prize, for one of his night-time images. In 2011 he was highly commended in the same award.http://www.parliamentaryphotoprize.com.au/

All images on this site are available for sale, either as limited-edition fine art prints (see 'fine art prints' link), canvas or acrylic display prints, or for illustrations for publications, websites and other media. All inquiries can be made via the Contacts page: http://www.illuminated-landscape.com/contact/

For more online references about Peter's achievements go to the following links:

1) Artist Profile in Australian Art Review magazine, March 2011 - http://artreview.com.au/contents/804345113-peter-solness-illuminated-landscapes

2) Video interview for Exposure Pro, a series on leading art photographers, posted on the Cnet Australia site December 2011 - http://www.cnet.com.au/exposure-pro-peter-solness-339327664.htm

3) Workshop Review - read a blog about one of Peter's workshops held in April 2011 http://www.cohabitaire.com/2011/04/peter-solness-night-magic-part-2/

3) To preview Peter's self-published book 'Illuminated Landscape' published November 2011 by Blurb - http://www.blurb.com/books/2673280

 3) To research Peter's extensive 35 year photographic career prior to this current body of work, go to this link for the Design and Art Australia Online database - a government funded initiative that represents biographical data about significant Australian artists: http://www.daao.org.au/bio/peter-solness/#artist_biography