Picture taken by: Matt Dodd

 

“The more you connect with people.The more the universe will help you on your journey.

Make one smile & they in return, will make you smile.That is the goal of life.To expand and grow our state of consciousness.”

 

Bio

 

Fletcher Bayly (1988) was born in Coulta, a small isolated town in South Australia, Australia. As the son of a fisherman and avid surfer, he grew up on- and with the remote coastlines of the Indian Ocean. At the age of 18, whilst travelling New Zealand, he fell in love with photography and capturing the landscape in a most specific way.
During his young photographer’s career, he developed a very personal technique which stems from relentless experimentation, stimulated and inspired by his mother’s artistically critical nature and photographers such as Michael Kenna, David Burdeny, Josef Hoflehner and more recently Gregory Crewsdon.
Since graduating with a Distinction in his chosen field of “Landscape Photography” he has presented his work in Australia and New Zealand. Being the grandson of Dutch immigrants, Fletcher has chosen to spend a year living and working in the Netherlands.
The structures nature present to Fletcher, form the basis for the perfect image of nature Fletcher wants to share with his viewers. It is an artistically manipulated image of nature at its most perfect.
His manipulation of the image continues in the editing, resulting in the very personal, mysterious, and sometimes almost unearth like images of “his earth”. The results are a reflection of Fletcher’s journey through life and nature; personal discoveries and visions that reflect the beauty of his subjects but also his never-ending desire to enter new territories, both artistically and as a human being.

 

Artist’s Statement

 

My sole objective as an artist is to make the viewer feel, experience and be captivated by nature’s infinite, grand and masterfully created sculptures. My images are merely a portal to be present and to see and experience this world as I do, through my eyes.
The further we become detached from nature, the stronger my need to investigate and explore the intimacy and overwhelmingly temporal, silencing power I experience, whilst alone in nature. My passion is to capture these experiences, allowing the viewer to feel what I feel, to embrace what I embrace and realize the need to relish and protect the enriched undoubtedly sheer beauty and essence of our home, our planet, our very existence.

 

Method

 

Fletcher researches various locations throughout the world seeking the perfect stages to express his vision and concepts. He Aspires to create portals to his world through his imagery.
He then spends potentially months travelling, mostly on foot, spending hours walking through the various forests, deserts and other landscapes, which more often then not are unforgiving in their terrain, in search of the unearthly like movie sets. Upon finding these locations, he has to then perceive what the image will become as in his images, he is the light source, not the sun. He may choose to wait and begin to prepare or return later as he is at nature’s mercy and very much dependent on perfect weather conditions.
For his photographs, he starts by manipulating the stage; first physically by cleaning up the scene of broken branches, dead leaves and sometimes human traces. Then, during the day, his mind’s eye begins conceptualizing and composing the image, meticulously preparing the stage, to be lit and shot at night. This involves numerous walks through and tremendous imagination.
The shoot consists of many attempts, walking through the entire scene time and time again until he has lit every aspect of the frame to perfection.
The manipulation of the image continues in the editing, resulting in the very personal, mysterious, and almost unearth like images.