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LIGH THE ART OF LIGHT GRAFFITI
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The art of light painting is amongst the final visual frontiers of human creativity. It requires precise photographic skill, carefully choreographed performance and a wild imagination. Light graffiti as an art is not yet a century old, a discipline born from photographic mistakes and years of experimentation. Just how good can light painting get? Light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. The term light painting also encompasses images lit from outside the frame with hand-held light sources. Light Painting Photography can be traced back to the year 1914 when Frank Gilbreth, along with his wife Lillian Moller Gilbreth, used small lights and the open shutter of a camera to track the motion of manufacturing and clerical workers. Man Ray, in his 1935 series “Space Writing,” was the first known art photographer to use the technique and Barbara Morgan began making light paintings in 1940. By moving the light source, the light can be used to selectively illuminate parts of the subject or to “paint” a picture by shining it directly into the camera lens. Light painting requires a slow shutter speed, usually a second or more. Light painting can take on the characteristics of a quick pencil sketch. In 1949 Pablo Picasso was visited by Gjon Mili, a photographer and lighting innovator, who introduced Picasso to his photographs of ice skaters with lights attached to their skates. Immediately Picasso started making images in the air with a small flashlight in a dark room. This series of photos became known as Picasso’s “light drawings.” Light painting by moving the camera, is the antithesis of traditional photography. At night, or in a dark room, the camera can be taken off the tripod and used like a paintbrush. An example is using the night sky as the canvas, the camera as the brush and cityscapes (amongst other light sources) as the palette. Putting energy into moving the camera by stroking lights, making patterns and laying down backgrounds can create abstract artistic images. Here is Charm Magazine’s collection of 10 excellent light graffiti artists from around the world, dating back to the days of Picasso and times more recent. So grab a flashlight and prepare to experience the best light painting the world has to offer. T
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Pablo Picasso One of the 20th century’s greatest artists was quite adept with light painting himself. The great Pablo Picasso experimented with light painting in his later days. Picasso stood in front of the camera, armed with a flashlight, and traced his style of imagery in the air before the shutter slammed shut. The result was an illuminating set of photos set of photos that show the artist at work - a wild set of set of self portraits where this famed painter shared the focal point with his art.
Taylor Pemberton The multi-disciplinary graphic artist and designer Taylor Pemberton has tried his own hand at light graffiti, and the resulting images are stunning. Much of Pemberton’s work with light painting is rooted in traditional graffiti, as the swirls and curves of his flashlight reflect the pieces shown on walls in cities throughout the world. This next gen graffiti is set in abandoned places where concrete, steel and a sense of decay frame these brilliant shapes of light.
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“ Unerringly precise, a collection of Arabic-inspired characters that come alive.”
Julien Breton The French calligrapher and graphic artist Julien Breton has extneded his calligraphy into the world of photography and light. Julien Breton’s Light Calligraphy is unerringly precise, a collection of Arabic inspired characters that come alive in the set for Compagnie Cortex, a french dance crew. As light graffiti is as much about photography as it is about performance, Breton’s collaboration with this dance crew is representational of the nature of this art form. The dancers hold their pose, the lights are set and Breton outlines their forms with light calligraphy before the shutters close. 63
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TCB TCB, the artist also known as Twin Cities Brightest, creates some of the most vivid and complex light graffiti we’ve seen. The lines within TCB‘s light graffiti are flawless, unbroken ribbons of light that weave into complicated shapes and patterns. TCB is quite prolific with his light painting and light graffiti, an artist whose body of work most certainly deserves a close look. 64
Lightmark Lightmark Light Painting by Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke focus more on minimal shapes within nature than outright light graffiti. Their light designs appear to be a part of the environment, organic shapes that fit within the context of nature. Light spheres within snowy fields, stalks of light above waterfalls and subtle forms on water are amongst some of their better designs. Their light painting may not be inspired by graffiti, but the introduction of alien light into the natural world leaves their own mark in this imagery.
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Lapp Pro The photographers and performance artists Joerg Miedza and JanLeonardo Woellert are the creative minds behind LAPP Pro, a crew that has experimented with the full gamut of light painting. LAPP Pro’s secret is both the setting and the tools with which they create these amazing images. Sparks fly into the night air, spheres of light form in desolate places, and shapes converge around the artists themselves as they take part in these photographs. Throughout the years of their light painting experiments, many visually stunning works have been created.
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“ Sparks fly into the night air, spheres of light form in desolate places, and shapes converge around the artists themselves.”
Lichtfaktor Lichtfaktor‘s work is unparalleled in the world of light graffiti, where urban environments meet a form of lightbased architecture that merge into amazing imagery. While we loved the Lichtfaktor London Light Graffiti before, the group’s full body of work is entirely impressive, even featured on magazine covers and advertisements in ultimate style. Beyond the teaser gallery below, a long look at Lichtfaktor’s work is required to understand just how brilliant light graffiti can be.
Michael Bonsanko Michael Bosanko is a photographer who’s taken on light painting in a series called “We Come in Peace”, in which figures made of light seem to interact with their surroundings in a way that’s comical, fun and highly engaging. The series features giant spiders crawling down a highway, “alien” rocks gathering around a central “spaceship”, a light figure skateboarding on a ramp and another hitchhiking on the side of a road.
Sola Light The light graffiti artist known as Sola has produced a wide, colorful and bright range of light graffiti that must be seen to be believed. By that, we mean that his work may appear to be manipulated, but the images are untouched after the camera shutter closes. Sola has weaved an impressive number of light graffiti images, ranging from swirls and shapes on urban backgrounds to intricate graffiti patterns with wild backgrounds.
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“ The art of light painting is amongst the final visual frontiers of human creativity. ”
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Toby Keller Toby Keller of Burn Blue Photography has himself experimented with light graffiti, in forms that share inspiration in the work of artists like Lightmark and Pemberton, shown above. Keller’s canvas is nature– the quiet, sandy beaches of Santa Barbara and brick ruins elsewhere, onto which he paints bright, vivid forms of light. The result is entirely natural, where the patterns of light appear to be a part of the environment around them.
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