Artist Burkhard Dobiey is considered to be a "Renaissance Man" because of his exceptional photographic talent - a life-long passion.

His exhibition was on Easter Friday officially opened by the German Ambassador to Namibia, Egon Kochanke, at Die Muschel Gallery.

"Both his passion and commitment to African art and artifacts collection is awe-inspiring," Kochanke said.

The artist received his first camera when he was just 14 years old and spent years honing his photographic skills under the often grey and cloudy skies in Germany.

"The incredible light of Namibia came as a revelation to him when for the first time he saw the immense quality in the early morning and late afternoon," he told an audience of about 80 people.

To a photographic artist such as Dobiey, light, composition and the symbolism of the subject often become more important than the subject itself.

"Burkhard's photography is an exploration of this dialogue between reality, portrayed with photographic precision, and abstraction. His photographs are realistic at their base, but often defined by a geometric simplification. He pays a high degree of attention to which details are to be included in each frame and as a result the patterns of light and shadow can become a non-associative abstract reality in which the geometric shapes such as triangles, circles and straight lines dominate the image," the ambassador said.

According to the ambassador, artist Dobiey uses a kaleidoscope of mingling, shifting views, many of which are oblique, to focus on the severe abstract design of the subject matter.

"His composition of forms and symbols creates the tension between the two dimensional and three dimensional. He achieves linear perspectives combined with flat two-dimensional overlapping colour planes, resulting in a dynamic tension," he said.

The artist in his works highlights the Namib Desert's textures and tempos and the dichotomy between living organisms and sand.