South Pacific Humpback Whale mother and calf. Photograph Bryant Austin 2006
Bryant Austin inspects one of his life-size whale photographs at the Monterey Museum of Art.
Bryant Austin signs and numbers his first to-scale photograph of a whale, simply entitled "Humpback Whale Calf I".
Click on any above image to access a downloadable high-resolution version suitable for print publication.
For more inforomation, please contact:
Bryant Austin
Tel: (831) 295-0289
Email: info@mmcta.org
Bay Area artist works to effect change with his life-size whale photographs at the International Whaling Commission Meeting
April 21, 2008: [Santiago, Chile] Fine art photographer Bryant Austin and The London-based World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA)have teamed up to promote and inspire change at the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) meeting during the month of June, 2008 at the Sheraton Hotel, Santiago, Chile.
Bryant Austin is an artist working to produce life-size photographs of whales to fulfill his vision of inspiring change within countries who continue to hunt or harm these creatures. Despite the scale of his envisioned works reaching up to fifteen feet high by ninety feet long, it is the subtle and varied expressions in the eye of the whale and the emotions they evoke in us that he explores in-depth. He collaborates with experienced whale biologists and invests entire seasons with specific whale populations. He seeks out genuine connections with his subjects, where then, at a mere body's length from the whale, he begins the process of composing a series of photographs along the whale, ultimately to produce a full-size composite.
WSPA and Austin are part of Whalewatch, a coalition of over 140 NGOs in 55 countries that oppose whaling on welfare grounds. The coalition believes there is no humane way to kill a whale at sea. The uncontrollable conditions, often inaccurate harpoon and the size of the animal all make a quick kill virtually impossible. Evidence shows that many hunted whales can take up to an hour to die. On the grounds of animal welfare the Coalition is calling for all commercial and scientific whaling to be stopped.
Austin’s work is currently on exhibit at the Monterey Museum of Art through May 18, 2008. The exhibit features his large-scale black and white underwater photographs of Humpback whales as well as an audio/video installation as an introduction to his future international “Whales in Public Spaces” exhibitions. The video installation includes never before released to-scale photographic projections 7 feet high by 20 feet wide. This visual installation is complimented by a purpose-designed 14 Hz (infrasonic) subwoofer allowing the viewer to hear and feel the true frequency range of the Blue, Fin, and Humpback Whales.
In 2009 he will resume his work with the whales using a custom prototyped 63 mega pixel underwater imaging array. This next phase comprised of forty months of field work will focus on five endangered whale species including the Blue Whale the largest animal ever to exist on Earth. His field work is entirely funded through the sale of a very small body of work that he has released to collectors who share his vision.
Modern whales possess the largest and most complex brains ever to exist on Earth. They have been in existence in their present form for nine to thirty million years. Yet despite our scientific and technological advances, their nine to thirty million years of evolving communication and culture continue to defy our understanding. Within the span of two human generations, we decimated most large whale populations to two percent of their original size. Since the 1985 IWC global ban on whaling more than 25,000 whales have been hunted and killed. At present more than 40 million dollars are spent annually to hunt and kill over 2,200 whales.
The exhibit will take place at the Sheraton Santiago Convention Center, 1742 Santa Maria Ave, Santiago, Chile June 15th through June 30th. For additional information please visit: www.mmcta.org and www.wspa-international.org/, or contact Bryant Austin directly at 831.295.0289.