Little ink dots in the sky created the most eye-catching film ever.
Soren Solkaer, a photographer in Denmark, has spent countless nights capturing the beauty of the starlings.
He was just 10 years old when he first witnessed the fantastic beauty and astonishing patterns made by the starlings above when they were chased by a falcon. He first saw it on the west coast of Denmark, and more than 100000 birds were presented there to make the beautiful scenario. Even though Solkaer was known as an intimate and playful photographer, who focused on artists and musicians, he captured the mesmerizing beauty of the starlings after 40 years, when he finally re-embraced his youth.
Solkaer has stated that he had spent every winter capturing the starlings and their wonder, and he didn’t have any idea of stopping from capturing the picture. At this time, Solkaer wasn’t gonna stop making his iconic book and exhibition, Black Sun, and after 5 years, he got what he deserved. However, other than this fantastic photograph, Solkaer hasn’t ever taken any photo of birds, even though it reminds him of his childhood. He still confesses that he doesn’t photograph individual birds as it doesn’t interest him visually or artistically.
However, Solkaer has about eight pictures of individual starlings in his Black Sun collection. Solkaer says it was added to the group because he wanted to show the natural beauty of the starlings up close, as the photographs only offer them as little ink dots in the sun. The individual photos show that they are beautiful metallic birds, and it emphasizes how a little thing can do a substantial fantastic art of work.
Due to his passion, he became obsessed with the aforesaid little creatures, and it made him travel all around the world. Not only because of their creativity, Solkaer also got interested in their ecology, and he followed their migration across Europe from Denmark to Rome to Catalonia. He started his journey from the Wadden Sea, the most extensive unbroken system of intertidal mud flats on earth.
In this area, starlings’ skies are filled up with murmurations every spring and autumn. This murmuration is locally known as ” sort sol ” or ” Black Sun”; Solkaer has used this nickname for his book. Even though the murmuration is common among starlings, people still don’t know why they do so. Some claim that it helps the birds keep warm when they travel in massive numbers, and some predict that it allows them to survive predators. However, no matter the reason, the murmuration has been very creative and a photogenic thing that starlings did.
It’s still a miracle how birds fly so close to each other. Some say that these birds respond instantly to the most relative birds to maintain their group’s pattern.
Solkaer suggests that many photographs are interesting only when people dig deep into the photo. Some may find photos uninteresting only because they don’t put enough effort into the picture.
Before this project, Solkaer had read all kinds of poems and observed paintings that depict murmurations, and he says that even now, he still feels the fascination people thought of in the 17th century. He added that he wanted to capture the “fragment of eternity”, and he says that he spent more than 100 nights capturing the perfect photo. He hasn’t seen any repeated photograph; every night, the image is different and unique. It helped him to be fresh and to feel timeless.
He further added that it’s an ephemeral sensation, and he says that he finds it fascinating to know that things are never gonna repeat once again. He said the most exciting something and added,” It can compete with seeing Arcade Fire or Amy Winehouse on a big stage at Glastonbury and being on stage with them.”