Soren Solkaer

With his project Black Sun, Danish photographer Søren Solkær (born 1969) captures the large murmurations of starlings that take place by the Wadden Sea near his native home of southern Denmark. Following their routes has led him on years-long journeys to Italy, the Netherlands, England and Catalonia. Inspired by classical landscape painting, calligraphy and Japanese woodcuts, Solkær presents a series of graphic images featuring landscape and great flocks of starlings, performing an unrivaled display of collaboration and performance skills. These mesmerizing murmurations create a strong visual expression, like an ink drawing or a calligraphic brushstroke asserting itself against the sky. The first edition of Black Sun received global acclaim with features in National Geographic, the Observer and the New York Times. Although Solkær is best known for his portraits of celebrities such as Björk, Paul McCartney, Amy Winehouse, Patti Smith and others, these fascinating photographs—packaged in a sumptuous stamped cloth binding—comprise a compelling part of his oeuvre that leaves the viewer in awe at the wonders of nature.

A sequel to Søren Solkær’s previous monograph Black Sun, Starling chronicles the photographer’s return to the landscape of his childhood and youth in southern Denmark. In a similar manner to prior projects, he spent three years following and photographing the migration of the starling: from Ireland to Denmark and the Netherlands along the Wadden Sea and on to Sardinia and Rome. The starlings move as one unified organism that vigorously opposes any outside threat. Shapes and black lines of condensation form within the swarm, resembling waves of interference or mathematical abstractions written across the horizon. The graphic and organic shapes of the starling murmurations range from meditative to highly dramatic as they perform their incredible ballet of life and death. This time, Solkær approaches the phenomenon from a mythological and scientific angle. These new perspectives capture the birds’ movements against backgrounds such as Roman urban architecture. Additionally, Solkær creates two new series of photographs featuring starling feathers photographed through a microscope.