Bill Hornbostel
Glasgow Science Centre IMAX 2
40 x 30 inches, digital photograph, Epson lustre giclée print, with acid free mat and custom black wood framed 52.5 x 42.5 inches, edition 2 of 6, 2017
Bill Hornbostel's most recent work is a series of landscapes and architecture-scapes from Scotland, a place of cultural blending myth, beauty, conflict, and tragedy where he could meld his love of history with his artwork.
Hornbostel is a photographer who specializes in capturing images of landscapes and architecture. Much of his work features the contrast between the static and the ephemeral, between the monumental immovability of stone or structure and the ever-changing chaos of water and sky. In pursuit of this contrast he takes long exposure photos, in which the capture time is measured in minutes, not fractions of a second. To achieve this kind of extended capture time, he sets his camera up on a tripod, and attaches to his lens nearly opaque glass filters which cut the light entering his camera. With this technique, the slow movements of clouds and water become a blur, and harsh sunlight is often softened.
Back in his studio, he then interprets the image from his camera. In his landscape images, he works on an image in a way reminiscent of watercolour painting. With his digital pen, he gently brushes light into sections of the image which need to be illuminated, gradually layering up the luminosity of parts of his photographs.