Last Updated on May 21, 2024
Vincent van Gaalen features in BBA Gallery during Berlin Gallery Weekend 2024
Last weekend, as part of the Berlin Gallery Weekend 2024, I ventured into the BBA Gallery Berlin where the works of Vincent van Gaalen were showcased during Berlin’s Gallery Weekend 2024. The Dutch artist, based in The Hague, had previously clinched the highly competitive BBA Photography Prize in 2022.
In my previous article, “Why is Lighting So Important in Photography?”, I discussed how light shapes narratives within photographic art through the works of Trent Parke and Viviane Sassen. Contrastingly, in Vincent van Gaalen’s “Shades of the Night” series, it is the absence of light that intriguingly crafts its own narrative. Van Gaalen’s deliberate use of darkness invites us to explore how shadows and minimal light reveal hidden aspects of the natural world, creating a profound story told through what is not immediately visible.
Vincent, who describes himself as an artist whose primary medium is photography, maintains a humble demeanor that starkly contrasts with the depth of his works. Upon entering the gallery, I was unprepared for the emotional impact of his exhibition “Shades of the Night”. Unlike my usual gravitation towards artworks that extol light, these images—at first glance—appeared as layers of black on black: black photographs taken at night, mounted on black frames, sometimes set against black walls.
The landscapes within these images assert their presence immediately, yet like our eyes adjusting to a dark room, they demand time and attention to reveal their moonlit secrets. These mysterious and eerie landscapes, nestled in deep forest crevices, invoke a primordial fear of the dark and untouched natural dangers—of bears, wolves, and territories where humans are mere interlopers.
As described by BBA Gallery, “Darkness is disappearing as light pollution within Europe is increasing at an average rate of 6.5% every year. Since the year 2020, the Dutch photographer Vincent van Gallen travels to the darkest areas of Europe equipped only with simple camera equipment, a tent and provisions.”
As civilization sleeps, Vincent’s images reveal realities untouched by man’s imposition—the “mark of the West.” This contrast is further explored through a heat map of light pollution across Europe, delineating clusters of human activity from Paris to Frankfurt to Berlin. Vincent’s journey into these darkened areas, captured with his digital camera during solitary camping expeditions, reveals the nocturnal rejuvenation of nature.
Below is an image of a heat map included at the entrance of the exhibition displaying light pollution across Europe.
According to BBA gallery, “The landscapes he documents included places in Portugal, Spain, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Czech Republic…The photographer captures the few remaining regions yet to be marred by the presence of artificial light and the industrial hand of humankind.”
The longer one gazes into these images, the more luminous they become, as if moonlight itself peels back the layers of darkness to expose waters, branches, rocks, and hidden paths. This experience reminded me of my time in a Tanzanian village devoid of electricity, where the moonlight eventually became a sufficient substitute for any artificial light source.
As a photographer myself, I marveled how the darknesss retained its form and didn’t devolve into noise. At the same time, the images were sharp in focus and in shutter, revealing trees, leaves, and waters without blur, while retaining a large Ansel Adam-esque depth of field.
Vincent’s technical process involves merging 40-50 shots of the same location under varying conditions of lighting and exposure, a method born from the necessity of overcoming a single lens’s limitations in completely absorbing the vastness before it. This meticulous form of light painting, crafts hyperdimensional landscapes by subtly painting on moonlit surfaces, in an otherwise hidden void.
This process is a variation on a technique commonly known as High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. HDR involves taking multiple photographs of the same scene at different exposure levels and then blending these images together to create a single image. This method allows for a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image, capturing details that would otherwise be lost in standard exposure settings. HDR can effectively convey a more realistic or strikingly artistic representation of the scene’s lighting and colors.
As a result, Vincent’s dark abodes are treated with portraiture-like intimacy, reflecting his view of humanity’s role as caretakers rather than conquerors of Earth.
According to Van Gaalen, the primary theme driving his work is that of absence. “Absence” not only signifies the lack of human presence but also serves as a reminder and a warning about the erasing impact our presence has on delicate ecosystems. This thematic exploration brings to mind a cinematic parallel—imagine Gotham from Batman: The Dark Knight Rises as a forest preserve, with Vincent as a nocturnal guardian preserving the stillness of the night.
As the exhibition notes detail, “In Shades of the Night van Gaalen draws attention to the urgency of counteracting the incessant destruction of nature. ‘We are living in a constant contradiction: on one hand, we have a romantic perception of nature that hardly corresponds to reality. On the other hand, we exploit our environment to its last resources.'”
The photographs, large and immaculately printed, beckon viewers to lean in closely, engaging in a visual dialogue about our place in the world and the shadows we cast. “Shades of the Night” at BBA Gallery not only captivated me with its depth but also left a profound reminder of the silent stories the darkness holds.
You can find more works by Vincent van Gaalen in his portfolio website.
