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Dawn: Hope — Trai Anfield
"The Tonic of Wildness" is a captivating dual photography exhibition by Trai Anfield and Marie Tartar, presented at The Photographer's Eye Gallery and Creative Collective. This exhibition highlights the breathtaking beauty of nature through stunning images of underwater marine life and majestic wildlife, including gorillas. The show invites viewers to explore the mysterious and unfathomable aspects of the natural world, inspired by a quote from Henry David Thoreau.
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Trai Anfield is renowned for her African photography safaris and wildlife photography workshops on five continents. Her photography has been featured in magazines, on the BBC, and in galleries across Great Britain. She is actively involved with several conservation initiatives and donates 10% of her print sales to California-based Gorilla Doctors.
She makes her home in Northumberland, England. This exhibition highlights her images of animals of Africa through the night in a four-part series called Dusk 'til Dawn.
After "golden hour" is over and as the last light fades, many photographers move on to sundowners, dinner, and a fine night's sleep under the African stars. But I've always been curious about the dramas that continue on the plains throughout the hours of darkness. I began to spend time at an overnight hide in South Africa, and the experience—including the dreamlike state I often enter in the small hours (whether through lack of sleep or artistic inspiration remains unclear to me!)—inspired this collection.
For me there are four stages to nights on safari: dusk, darkness, dreaming, and dawn. I've dedicated a wall to each stage as I experience it.
The Dusk Wall represents a time of dynamic awakenings. Most predators sleep through the heat of the African day, to wake refreshed and energetic around dusk, just in time for the golden hour. Plains game herds together for safety in numbers as darkness approaches.
The Dark Wall follows night activity: many animals come to drink at waterholes during the drought months, risking running into predators to access the life-sustaining waters. It is also a time where we may confront our own fears. Colors become secondary in the dark—texture comes to the fore, with the darkness itself defining form. The lighting for these shots is a mix of natural ambient, vehicle, and daylight-balanced spot lighting.
The Dreaming Wall represents the subconscious state I enter as my mind processes the previous day's encounters during sleep—the effects are realized through a complex fusion of extended shutter speeds, intentional camera motion, lens manipulation, and stacked images.
The Dawn Wall is simply full of new light, new life, and the new hope that the start of each new day brings.
I have chosen unframed acrylics for this collection as it allows these wild subjects to retain a sense of unconstrained freedom within any space.
Marie Tartar is an avid explorer of the natural world, both above and below the waterline. Whether hiking, diving, or biking, she is observing nature and light closely. She is one half of the photographic partnership of San Diego–based Aperture Photo Arts (APA), along with her husband, Steve Eilenberg.
Her images have been exhibited at the La Jolla Athenaeum, San Diego Natural History Museum, Oceanside Museum of Art, Birch Aquarium, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Since 2017, Marie has written articles for an online photography e-zine, Photo Focus. Recently, she has been interviewed by Kirby Flanagan for his podcast series, Photographing the West, on topics ranging from whale photography to shooting eclipses and aerial photography via drones.
The ocean holds untold mysteries, a fraction of which I've been privileged to witness. Even that sliver of possibilities has been an eye-dazzling delight of riotous color, remarkable camouflage, and gasp-inducing surprises. Through photography, I try to capture some of the secrets of this baffling and beautiful universe—fleeting moments, miracles of light and pattern, an orderly web of interwoven lives so foreign and yet so essential to our own. I hope my images convey some of the wonder of our watery world and inspire others to value and conserve the natural world.
