Dancing Blossoms by Nico van Dongen
Photographs by Nico van Dongen
I photograph trees not as fixed objects, but as living presences shifting between my perception, and reality. Plato’s idea that “reality is the moving image of eternity” resonates deeply with my artistic process. Nothing is ever truly still. Light and perception change, and time quietly folds into itself. Through these multi layered photographic exposures, I attempt to acknowledge reality as something fluid, always transforming and forever in the process of becoming.
While grounded in photography and design, my process relies heavily on chance, and surrender. I use time-based image captures to allow the photograph to slowly reveal itself rather than forcing a predetermined outcome. The final image is not truly mine; it flows through me, and I become the instrument through which these impressions can emerge.
These painterly photographs become less about describing nature and more about revealing an ongoing dialogue of our human connection with the natural world. Shimmering Presence reflects this state of impermanence; it describes a moment that has already changed as it is observed.
—Nico van Dongen