Project 3: Final Proposal & Series

The Proposal

For this project I worked with light painting. I found light painting fun, since one cannot predict the results and the photographs usually turn out quite interesting.  Inspired by Pablo Picasso’s light painting photographs, I chose to do self-portraits as my concept.

I asked three friends to draw freehand self-portraits – one of their face and one of their whole body. They were requested to do freehand drawings instead of tracing, as the self-portraits become more real. It’s the qualities and sides to a person that determine who they are. The photographs are meant give an idea of whom each subject is.  The photographs were taken in each of their rooms to emphasise the concept even more. The visible context reveals more of their personalities.

Light painting is photographed by using one long exposure. Frank and Lillian M. Gilbreth first used this photo technique in 1914 to track the motion of manufacturing workers. Other requirements needed are a tripod, LED light and a dark room.  A flash from another digital camera was used to light the background.

Continuity within the series is created through black and white photography. In doing so, they emphasise my artist precedent Pablo Picasso’s light painting photographs which were in black and white. Parts of the light paint drawings go outside the frame. However this does not ruin the image as one can visualise where the lines would have continued.

Reflection

Light painting is a learning process and it takes time and experimentation to get a final series. This project has given me experience and taught me several tricks on how to take long-exposure shots of light. The final series could perhaps have been more successful with a third photo shoot, being over the experimentation phase. But as my first light painting project, I am satisfied with the result in the final series.

Updated proposal

After some research and the tutorial on Wednesday, I have come up with 3 concepts I want to explore. They are:

 

– drawing self-portraits

(For this concept I wish to take photographs of 3-4 friends who will drawn self-portraits of themselves in form of a face, an animal and their whole selves. Example: Light painting photographs of Pablo Picasso)

 

– attaching lights to a dancer, ice skater, worker etc.

(For this concept I wish to capture movement. I will do this by attaching lights to the person in motion. Example: Gilbreth’s motion study)

 

– designing  architecture

(For this concept I wish to draw or design what’s not already there in form of architecture. I will do this by drawing architectural designs in relevant places such as empty spots, in parks, on the beach etc.)

 

For all my concepts the background in the photographs or context will be visible.  I will try and do so by either using a long exposure or flashing the background.

David Lebe

Photographer David Lebe began in 1969 experimenting with pinhole cameras. This experimentation lead to his revelation that a photograph didn’t have to capture an instant moment in time, but could capture a whole event. In 1976 he began working on the first of his light drawing series in his apartment. These first images were self portraits where Lebe used small pin lights to outline his own body.

These photographs are relevant to my project as Lebe creates self-portraits. Also worth mentioning is his technique of making the self-portrait which is different to the freehand drawing technique used by Man Ray, Pablo Picasso etc. He traces himself with the pin light instead of drawing by freehand. This can allow for a more realistic or scientific picture of himself, instead of  an abstraction that often occurs in freehand drawings. However, which of the two techniques is more right or true cannot be argued.

Reference: http://lightpaintingphotography.com/light-painting-history/

Man Ray

Man Ray was an American modernist artist born in 1890. He considered himself a painter, even though he produced major works in a variety of media. Best known was he for his avant-garde photography. Ray’s contribution to light painting photography came in his series “Space Writing” in 1935. He was to produce self-portaits, using a small penlight and long exposure photography.

“Space Writing”  is an inspiration to my project, as the concept in the series is drawing self-potraits. I find the abstraction and lit background or context interesting.

Reference: http://lightpaintingphotography.com/light-painting-history/

Frank and Lillian M. Gilbreth

In 1914 Frank Gilbreth and his wife Lillian M. Gilbreth used small lights to track the motion of manufacturing and clerical workers in one exposure photograph. The light painting photographs were created as a study of what they called “work simplification”, and not as an artistic endeavor. The Gilbreth’s wanted to develop ways to increase employee output and simplify their jobs.

Their photographs are an inspiration to the study of motion. And even though the Gilbreth’s purely did it as a study of “work simplification”, the photographs, in my opinion, have an artistic expression too.

Reference: http://lightpaintingphotography.com/light-painting-history/

Gjon Mili

Born in Albania in 1904, Gjon Mili was a engineer and self-taught photographer.  He moved to the United States in 1923. Since 1939 he worked as a freelance photographer for the magazine Life. Mili pioneered photoflash photography in the mid 1930’s. He used stroboscopic light to capture the motion of everything from dancers to jugglers in a single exposure. Later on he experimented with light painting by attaching small lights to the boots of ice skaters. Most famous are his photographs of Pablo Picasso.

Gjon Mili’s techniques and photographs are unique and inspirational. They capture not only a scientific interest, but “reveals the beautiful intricacy and graceful flow of movement too rapid or too complex for the eye to discern”.

For my concept I wish to something similar – either the concept of drawing (Pablo Picasso) or attaching light to a person in movement (iceskating etc). In addition of being beautiful images, I find them interesting as Mili has lit up the background. Through this technique, he puts the light painting into a context, telling more of the story in the photograph. Especially for self-portraits, for example the light painting photos of Picasso, the lit context reveals more of Picasso identity.

Reference: http://lightpaintingphotography.com/light-painting-history/

Project 3 proposal

For this third project I want to work with light painting.

I have not done much light painting before, but I found it very fun when we did it in lecture on monday.

Light painting is interesting as you cannot predict the result, and one can get some really cool images.

Also, with light painting, you become the designer and can design whatever you like.

I have not come up with a concept yet, so for my first shoot I just explored light painting through different lighting, techniques, movement etc.

First Shoot