Birdseye view for the Biennale

HANGING out of a door-less helicopter with an SLR camera firmly in hand shooting the details of nature’s creations is all in a day’s work for Mieke Boynton.

Her speciality is abstract aerial landscape photography usually taken around 1000 to 2000 feet up.

“I’ve chartered at least 15 flights over the past seven years to capture the images for my exhibition Skyview: Colours of Earth and Water at Fairbanks Eye Gallery as part of the Biennale,” Ms Boynton said.

She describes her passion for aerial photography as having two components.

“Firstly, I love flying,” she said. “I don’t think I will ever not get a little bit nervous, that frisson of excitement before you take off in a vehicle that flies through the sky.”

The other element of it is seeing landscapes from a different perspective.

“The shots I take are of inaccessible places,” she said.  “My images of the mudflats for example, you can’t walk on them because you would sink in the mud up to your thighs.”

Skyview is her first exhibition at Ballarat’s International FOTO Biennale.

Peter Fairbanks, optometrist and owner of the Eye Gallery has hosted photographers for the last four Biennale events.

“I love Mieke’s work, the colours and the details are amazing,” he said. “I think Skyview is the best display we’ve had in our gallery space.”

The Australian Photographic Society is holding its annual conference in Ballarat to coincide with the Biennale.

Ms Boynton is giving a keynote speech on The Art of Abstract Aerial Photography at the conference on Saturday, 14 September.

She will discuss the artists who influence her work with a focus on her 24 images hanging in the Eye Gallery.