"The Last Birds"

A photography exhibition by

Ingeborg Feeney-Clausen

Her introduction to art and photography dates back to her childhood memories growing up among the war rubble in Hamburg.  She came to see Art as the greatest accomplishment in the journey of mankind. She studied sculpture with Gustav Seitz and discovered Art was a continual never ending creative process. Along the way, she obtained a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes.

Having observed that the world we live in is facing constant changes, she wanted to capture the beauty of vanishing moments, the colours and textures that surrounds her.  With this inspiration, she studied photography in Atelier Fotokunst at the Leuven Kunstakademie working with traditional darkroom methods.

About nine years ago she re-equipped herself with a new computer and a digital camera.  She had been feeding birds in her garden for a while, and realised that with a telephoto lens, she could keep a distance or hide while observing and photographing her garden visitors.  And thus began her journey into bird photography.

Her fascination with birds stems from the enjoyment of watching them, their interaction, their flying and most of all their voices and songs. Their speeds in movements and activities in low light are a challenge for the camera, since they move faster than the camera can react.  One can only appreciate the moments captured by reviewing the images after the action.

As a refugee child she lived in the countryside. Her fondest memory was when she found a little blue and white feather of an Eichelhäher in the forest. Puzzled and excited, she went running to her mother to show it, holding this ‘miracle’ in her hands, thinking it had fallen down from heaven.