Doug Urquhart could not see the stars. The sky was hazy and muted by the dull lights in the city around him – light pollution. How could he bring the galaxy back? How could he bring more than just a handful of stars, a handful of beauty to the light-filled streets?
Urquhart, a former film student at Georgia State and co-founder of Upthink (a visual production company), traveled to the Canadian Rockies with his business partner Eric Huber. There, they captured the Northern lights, the brilliant night sky and the stunning landscape through time-lapse photography.
The result was a short film entitled “Mountains in Motion”, which later evolved into the window project that can be seen throughout March at the DAEL building on campus.
“I fell in love with this drastically different landscape than what I was used to living in Atlanta,” Urquhart said of his first trip, a celebration of his one-year wedding anniversary, to the Canadian Rockies three years ago. “I found myself with the desire to go back.”
Urquhart’s second trip to the Canadian Rockies was to shoot footage for “Mountains in Motion” and a way to escape city life.
“At the same time,” Urquhart said. “It offered me the ability to hone in on a new skill set, a new interest.”
For Urquhart, that interest was time-lapse photography.
Urquhart experimented with different mediums as a Film and Video major at Georgia State. One of his favorite professors was Ly Bolia, who introduced him to the realm of film photography.
“I really wanted to have an opportunity to experiment with film while everybody else was rushing to lock up all the film equipment and get rid of it, and move purely to digital,” Urquhart said.
Film allowed Urquhart’s passion for time-lapse to grow into something even bigger. Mountains in Motion has garnered several awards and has been on circulation in some of the country’s major film festivals like Atlanta Shortsfest, the Asheville Cinema Festival and the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.
Elizabeth Strickler, associate director at DAEL, later approached Urquhart about featuring footage of Mountains in Motion for Georgia State’s window project. This makes MIM his second window project at DAEL to date after “Motions of Time”, an earlier visual project completed with co-creator Eric Huber.
“Eric Huber and Doug Urquart were GSU film and video alumni who I had been following because of their talent while in school,” Strickler said. “Someone showed me their time-lapse work and I contacted them to be the second [ever] installation for the window project. They submitted their work Motions of Time and it was mesmerizing.”
The concept of the window project is unique. Strickler collaborated with Micah Stansell, Georgia State alum and visual artist, to create the first window project back in 2011. The window project is now a monthly staple at DAEL, featuring visual work from artists around the globe.
“The Mountains in Motion window installation is a way to share my experiences with other people that may not have the ability to travel to these remote destinations,” Urquhart said.
The MIM window project is not limited to the Canadian Rockies. It features shots from other places Urquhart has been, like Iceland and Hawaii.
