Vessels

'Vessels' is the genesis of a delicate interplay of time and motion – all-night-long exposures of a motor yacht (M/Y), sailing yacht (S/Y), or cruise ship (M/S/Y) at rest, drifting around its anchor at the mercy of the ebb and flow of the winds and currents. Against the vast expanse of Earth’s primordial seascape, the hidden architecture of otherwise invisible structures are transient in nature, revealed only through the permanence of photography. Tranquil in creation – quite literally framing the horizon, triggering the shutter and leaving the camera open throughout the night, to record the slow dance between ship and sea, Berger creates images that sinuously plot the passage of time and movement over the course of the night. Filmic, paranormal in appearance, UFO-like, these unidentifiable floating objects are fleeting apparitions, invisible to the naked eye and manifest only whilst many are asleep. Vessels in the naval sense, their fantastical forms evoke an organism-like aura as a vessel or container of life. The otherworldly objects and etch-a-sketch style dots and lines create a discourse similar to that of Morse code – constructing a binary communication system between the natural and unnatural. Visually blurring the line between manufactured and organic, Berger relinquishes technical and creative control to the natural elements, which shape and construct these dreamlike images, at once intricate and ethereal.