The shoreline is a unique place of convergence where elements of earth, air and water meet the human mind perceiving them. It’s a territory where we are confronted by the enormity and sheer force of Nature, the eternal movement of waves, winds and tides, shaping ancient stone, eroding fragile sands and immovable mountains. Standing on the edge of vast, unknown depths of ocean or lochs mirroring the infinite sky, human scale and time are transformed. This liberating state of stillness and heightened awareness shifts perception and we begin to see the world and ourselves in a different light. Although not obviously populated by human figures, Humanity is always present in Beka Globe’s framing of land and seascape, actively placing the viewer in the foreground. Her approach to composition is one of the great joys of her Art, leading the viewer imaginatively into the frame to experience the core of the subject for ourselves. In these uniquely captured moments time is stopped and we are able to explore a different state of being to the ever accelerating spin of everyday life.

What defines Beka Globe’s photography is its knowing precision and engagement with light, not just as a physical presence but as illumination. It’s the wonder of stepping inside the camera/mind and beneath the surface, seeing landscape not as scenery, but with the distilled clarity of black and white. Her work reinterprets land, sea and sky in a tremendously rich, expansive tonality, a process of “fixing the shadows” that takes us from pure light into cavernous depths of velvety black, seeping into the very fabric of the print. Delighting in detail, pattern and texture created by the natural environment, her exceptional ability to sculpt with light directs the eye and brings the viewer into intimate contact with the essence of the subject. In Cravadale Rocks geological time enters the frame with molten striations of darkness and light, like a living mass in the process of formation, reaching towards a bare strip of white sand and the ever changing sea. The incredible sense of movement in stone and heightened tonality is otherworldly and yet the aged rock is resiliently grounded, extending beyond the picture plane to beneath the viewer’s feet. The depth of headland and sky bled from light horizon to the dark, receding upper corner of the frame feels like the flow of water meeting the substance of ink in drawing. It is light that draws the eye, becoming the ultimate vanishing point, the centre of the image and the core of our seeing. Details of stippled sea, fluid stone and diagonals of interlocking tone create an image of surprising contrast and texture, effectively placing the viewer’s awakening threshold of consciousness into the foreground of the shot. In Cravadale Beach the pronounced curvature of the foreground boulder feels like the entire earth, leading the eye to where the tip of headland meets the sky. We are so close we can reach out and touch the stone, feeling its emotive temperature and weathered texture. The viewer’s crouched position and the high horizon perspective bring us close to both the earth and sky in a complete fusion of elements; physical, compositional and spiritual.

As an artist/photographer Beka’s brilliantly insightful portraiture, delicately bold images of flora and definitive approach to land and seascape is based on bringing her whole self to the subject with natural ease, honesty and regard. Her insistence that “you’ve got to be there, rather than zoom in” is part of her integrity as an image maker. Going out to meet the elements, being present at the centre of a storm during long exposures with all of her senses firing, she is able to communicate the awe inspiring power of Nature through touch. This immediacy translates directly to the dynamic, meditative structure of her compositions. Her masterful printing technique brings an unexpectedly tactile and painterly quality to the digital medium. This is exemplified in Sea Mountain and the sublime Romagi where the explosive curvature of the wave becomes a wash of almost granular sea spray, altering its chemistry and deconstructing how and what we see. Barely discernible to the human eye in real time, the frozen impact of white patterned foam is reminiscent of Japanese prints by Hokusai and Hiroshige. That contemplative, reverent spirit in beholding nature reaches a zenith in Sheilbost Dune, a divine study of form and tone where the eye moves along the living spine of sand, led by light to the centre of the image and ourselves.

Beka’s command of digital photography is significantly underpinned by her understanding of photographic discipline experienced in the darkroom, informing her intuitive work in the field. Her work in America, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and at home in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland bring a global perspective to her focus on the natural world and our essential relationship to it. Inspired by the printing techniques of Ansel Adams, she is exacting in her approach, but there is also a desire to capture the feeling and atmosphere of an expanded sense of place held within. This feeling of connectivity can equally be sensed and felt in the seascapes of Hiroshi Sugimoto, which have an emotional core of awareness in the presence of Nature. 

Her latest body of work centring on the Isles of Harris and St Kilda take us to threshold spaces on edge of the wild North Atlantic, inviting us to step over this shoreline bridge between worlds and continue the journey in our mind’s eye. In Horgabost grains of sand fall away, stone disintegrating into light at our feet, while the tonal depth at the top edge of the image recedes into nothingness. The sweep of sand and wave echo each other and the process of erosion is telescoped before our eyes, like the sands of an hourglass stopped by a moment and a lifetime of conscious thought. Horgabost feels like the beginning and end of everything, a photograph anchored to place but universally transcending it.

Pebble is another example of the photographer’s transcendental skill, where we seem to have travelled back to the primeval beginnings of life on earth. A corridor of light draws the eye to an individual pebble, smoothed by the sea and emerging like a vulnerable egg about to hatch. The turbulence of the ocean is held in the suspension of long exposure and the sheer rock face cleaves the composition into a triptych. The exquisite contrast between the evaporating sea becoming air and the pillars of stone we steady ourselves upon as we step into the profound stillness create a powerfully meditative composition. This quality can also be seen in Slow Sea, where a force of nature is transformed by the photographer’s manipulation of time and inner sensitivity to light, becoming a state of contemplation within the viewer.

In North Atlantic the equality of sea and sky is cast in a moment of breath taking stillness.  As we step into the image it is easy to imagine how our ancestors perceived no separation between the physical and metaphysical in Nature. The presence of both elements is so resoundingly clear, we feel as though we are floating in calm suspension witnessing the meeting of deistic forces attended by silhouetted seabirds overhead.

That sensation of barriers dissolving between our technologically driven, predominantly urban lives and the authenticity so many of us find in the natural environment can also be felt in Borve Break. A concentrated arc of raw energy draws us to the centre of the image as a breaking wave touches the clouds, eclipsing the scale of the distant headland and of the metaphorical ground beneath our feet. This isn’t just a photograph, but a shared state of mind, communicating a sense of wonder, awe and deeper appreciation of the world around and within us. Strikingly the dominant power in the image isn’t humankind, but Nature and our capacity to construct meaning in the presence of something greater than ourselves. This humbling experience can also be felt in Luskentyre Sea, where the textures of currents meet and light plays upon the water in a moment of profound luminescence, emanating above and below the clouds. It’s the elusive, mysterious and sacred in the landscape, just beyond the grasp of humankind, emerging from the shadows with phosphorescent, life affirming radiance.

Similarly there’s a strange, ethereal beauty and edge of ambiguity in Luskentyre River as the tide recedes across the beach and the subtle, linear glint of serpentine light pulls us into the image. This is one of the most famously photographed beaches in the world, yet we’ve never seen it like this. There is a path between waters in Beka Globe’s vision of Luskentyre which the viewer cannot help but step into and be immersed.

In her exploration of the St Kilda archipelago Beka takes us to the head of a promontory on Hirta, an image reaching for an edge of light beneath the quickening, inclement sky. The presence of a stone cairn on our approach to the cliff top is a reminder of pre-evacuation human habitation and there’s a feeling of poignancy and loss contained in the apex of the composition. We feel that the photograph could have been taken in an earlier era, documenting of a disappearing way of life, but the artist doesn’t allow us to romanticise the past or relegate what the image shows us to history. We are there in the foreground witnessing our own vulnerability as a species. Equally in this series of photographs we witness a stronger, abiding presence, seen in the apex of Boreray Stack rising out of the sea. Road, St Kilda is a journey into the upper far right of the frame, to the sea and to the light, along a long abandoned, diminishing man made path. The enduringly solid tone of rocky headland is contrasted with the fluidly ethereal meeting of sea and sky. This horizon evokes the ancient Celtic belief in the shore as the threshold for our final journey. It is a melancholic image where mortal life is sensed and felt in the downward sweep of the earth dominating the composition, but we are also lead towards a different state of being, striving towards light.

Beka Globe’s unique instinct, insight and photographic skill create images which feed the soul, alter perception and connect us to the wider world. The strength and beauty of her photographs moves beyond the scenic, placing the viewer at the heart of the image, deepening our understanding of what we feel and behold in the presence of Nature.

Georgina Coburn, Arts writer & critic.