LPP ∇ Soooo…. Vicki DaSilva I see you recently did a light painting tour in France can you tell me more about it? What was the main purpose of your trip? Did you go specifically to light paint, as part of a vacation, were you invited by some gallery, or a little of all three?

VD ∇ The main purpose of the trip was all three! We went to Paris for 2 weeks for a combination work/family trip. We were long overdue for a visit! We have a long history with Paris!! It had been 10 years since we were last there. I met Antonio (my husband/partner/father of our girls) there. His family emigrated to Paris from Portugal when he was 9. We lived there from 1990-1993. Our younger daughter was born there, so Paris is always in my heart!

LPP ∇ Since you have history there did you have specific shots in mind that you wanted to create from places you had been before?

VD ∇ I had planned 4 specific shoots. My work is two fold, graffiti oriented and spatially oriented. The photo shoots were a combo of both.

The first shoot was at the Jardin de Tuileries at the entrance near the Place de la Concorde. The piece, ‘Antonio Antonio’ was my artistic response/homage to Richard Serra’s sculpture ‘Clara Clara’ originally installed in 1983.

My work with the 8 foot fluorescent lamp is very influenced by his ideas about sculpture. Moving the lamp with my body in the space, live, on site, is my way of connecting to his thinking about “the idea of the body passing through space, and the body’s movement not being predicated totally on image or sight or optical awareness, but on physical awareness in relation to space, place, time, movement.” Richard Serra, in an interview with Lynne Cooke and Michael Govan, in *Richard Serra: Torqued Ellipses* (New York: Dia Center for the Arts, 1997), pp. 27–28.

Having spent 10 years working for the Serra’s provided me with an incredible opportunity to learn from one of the most important artists of the 20th century. The ideas evolved as my work evolved.

When I began moving the lamp vertically with my body in 2009 it was a culmination of everything I had learned about Richard’s work. I have also taken his site-specific concerns and tried to elevate that process through the act of the work existing as it is created as opposed to creating a work for a site and installing it. My carbon footprint is also non existent as the work exists as the act and the photographic/video documentation of the act.

The second shoot was to commemorate the Tour Paris13 http://www.itinerrance.fr/ on the final night of the installation exhibition on October 31, 2013. The exhibition was extremely popular, especially as the end drew near there were tens of thousands of people trying to see the show, which of course was impossible. Lines were around the blocks! We tried to see the show, but it was impossible so we returned that night to do that shoot to capture the feeling of that last night with all the people there. I did 3 photos, ‘FOY’ which is my tag, and stands for Fountain of Youth, ‘ce moment’, which means ‘this moment’ in French, and a piece with the 8 footer, ‘TourParis13’. An incredibly special night for sure!

The third shoot was at the Place du Trocadéro facing La Tour Eiffel. I am currently enjoying the inclusion of the figure in my work as it happens spontaneously at public spaces. The random act of movement is very much in connection with dance. Navigating a popular space such as the Place du Trocadéro with so many people was a great challenge! People were generally very receptive of my interaction and intervention. I will be exhibiting the photo, ‘Eiffel Eiffel’ at Context Art Miami with Cheryl Hazan Contemporary in NYC Dec 3-8.
http://www.contextartmiami.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=10&tabindex=9&dealerid=27587&curidx=17&back=name

LPP ∇ About the evolution of your work, can you talk a little bit about that and how important it is for the work of a light painter or artist in general to evolve? How do you avoid getting stuck or uninspired?

VD ∇ I think it is very important for the artist to try as much as possible to keep the work evolving and fresh in some way while possibly connecting ideas to history, to other artists, to contemporary culture, etc. Especially for the artist to not get bored! After 33 years of light painting photography I need to keep myself challenged! I now think about my work more in terms of art than light painting. Light painting photography is the medium but technique is not the only artistic message I am trying to communicate. And I am learning and researching new media alternatives for my work for installation shows to expand the work from the traditional photo on the wall. I am interested now in working more in public spaces with crowds, for example, as I did with ‘Eiffel Eiffel’ and ‘Tour Paris13.’ And I continue to think a lot about activist art and how I can contribute to that. I see a lot of shows in NYC, I saw the Philippe Parreno show in Paris which was incredibly thought provoking!
http://palaisdetokyo.com/en/exhibition/philippe-parreno

Seeing art helps me to question and inspire my work on an ongoing basis. If it’s not possible to visit in person, seeing work online is the next best thing.

LPP ∇ Besides creating beautiful works of art did you have anything else exciting happen on your trip?

VD ∇ While in Paris I had several meetings with a gallery interested in my work. I am very excited to possibly have a solo show there in the fall of 2014. It is too early to discuss that publicly but it looks to be a great opportunity for me!

LPP ∇ A gallery in Paris interested in your work and a possible solo show, thats awesome! Seeing as you have over 30 years of experience what advice would you give to up-and-coming light painters trying to get there work into galleries or a place to have a show. What has worked for you in the past. Do the galleries find you or do you generally reach out to them?

VD ∇ It is a combination of both. I actively seek group shows to participate in, introduce myself to gallerists whenever possible, attend openings, network at art fairs, show anyone who will look at my work on my phone, network with artists online & off, enter competitions, contact publications, etc etc. The typical work of an artist is all of this. And it never ends! I also did Fountain Art Fair last year in NYC and will do it again in 2014. That was a great fair for me in terms of connections and sales

LPP ∇ I know you have some serious light painting equipment in your arsenal how did you get your light painting gear from the US to Paris? Did you travel with those 8 foot bulbs?

VD ∇ We shipped a tube of three 8 foot fluorescent lamps to Paris via FedEx as they do not
make 8 footers in Europe. The largest is 6 feet. They arrived unbroken! We shipped them to Antonio’s brother where they will stay until our next trip to Paris.

LPP ∇ You met up with another incredible light painter with while you were there right?

YES!!!! I was so excited to FINALLY meet Marko93 after talking to him and following his work online for years! 🙂 I had a great feeling we would be friends and the vibe would be cool, and it was even better than I had hoped for!

LPP ∇ Did you create any images with Marko?

VD ∇ Yes, We only had one night to shoot together so we met at the Tour Paris13 and did some spontaneous photos in his installation room there. It was great to just jam together casually! Just gaining access to see the installations inside was incredible and only possible through his connection! Artists were inside touching up their work as Google Street was coming the next day to document the entire show. As I said, the show was a HUGE success and I imagine more buildings slated for demolition will become temporary graffiti meccas as this one was! I hope to do more collab work with Marko in the future and I hope he comes to NYC to make work too!!

It was a highly productive work trip overall and also great to see family, old friends and meet new friends too, especially Marko! J’ADORE PARIS!

Mark O’Neill created the above simply perfect light painting to win the 1st International Light Painting Awards! I caught up with Mark after the win and though he was in a bit of shock and speechless he managed to pull it together long enough to answer some questions, including who he would have voted for…

LPP ∇ Mark first of all Congratulations on winning the 1st International Light Painting Awards, your winning image is a light painting masterpiece, simply perfect!
MO ∇ Thank you very much! I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am to have been awarded first place in this great competition.

LPP ∇ Tell me a little about the image how long was the exposure time, what f-stop, etc…
MO ∇ My image was created using an exposure time of 60 seconds, ISO 500 at f6.3 This choice was a considered balance for all the elements of my image, so I could smooth the reflection, fill the chamber with enough light, and keep the scene sharp.

LPP ∇ What light tools did you use to create the image, anything custom?
MO ∇ Using minimal lighting in my image to keep things as simple as possible. I concentrated the lighting on a backlit silhouette of myself using a combination of three LED video lights, mounted on an extra tripod via an old flash bracket and some duct tape. This was positioned directly behind the figure as there weren’t enough human hands to do the job. With barn doors on the lights I was able to funnel the light far down the length of the tunnel. We experimented with a variety of compositions and lighting combinations but in the end I settled for the simplest of them. Remotely triggered speed lights would have been a better choice, to keep the silhouette sharp but that wasn’t an option at the time.

LPP ∇ Did you use any post production at all, crop, stamp, adjustments or is the image SOOC?
MO ∇ As with all my images I like to judge the final product in a controlled environment, on a large screen to make small adjustments. Working in raw, I applied some basic tonal adjustments to decrease contrast and even out the lighting across the frame. This was followed by a curve to add impact and then localised adjustments, mainly to pull up the detail in the corners and control highlights. White balance was already set to tungsten from the previous escapade and I felt the cool tones added to this image so I avoided warming it up too much. Thankfully, there were no flares or spots to hide but a slight crop was necessary to straighten the image perfectly.

LPP ∇ The location is EPIC! Where and what is this place? How did you find it?
MO ∇ ‘Megatron’ is definitely epic! All you have to do is shine a light inside to make it look amazing. A wide culvert section over the River Sheaf, it is on the bucket list of many urban explorers and photographers; recognised as one of those ‘must do’ locations by much of the UK scene. This is one part of a large culvert system underneath Sheffield, in a beautiful display of Victorian engineering which extends for more than a mile.
I’ve always been keen to get in there and wade underneath the city of Sheffield myself, after seeing images from people such as Robbie Shone. I finally got the chance to cast my own light on it recently whilst showing my favourite light painting partner, Xiao Yang (Inhiu) around the country for a week.

LPP ∇ Is it a difficult place to access? Any strange stories about working in this location?
MO ∇ Haha, yes! A wrong step near the culvert’s entrance led to some torn ligaments in my knee and a quick swim. My waders weren’t designed for swimming but luckily my dry bag was so the camera gear survived. It would have been a soggy, miserable disaster had anything important got wet.
A long, wet limp back through the town centre to our hotel, and a while later we were warm, dry and laughing as we returned to spend the rest of the night underground with the bats and the fish.
Access is not particularly difficult to anyone but me it seems, however, as with all culverts and drains you have to have respect for your surroundings and this visit was a good example of why you shouldn’t let your guard down when you’re somewhere like this. I’m still limping, three weeks later.
Carrying plenty of expensive equipment, the stakes are high so you have to be careful and it’s a good idea to double check everything you do before you do it. Visits during wet weather should be avoided for obvious reasons, a culvert wouldn’t be a nice place to meet your maker.

LPP ∇ Good advice… How long have you been light painting, and how did you make your discovery of the art form?
MO ∇ Night photography has always fascinated me, I’ve actively been light painting since I bought my first DSLR and started running around lighting up the local fields up with a friend in 2006 while he told me about a derelict hospital nearby. We were able to capture things that interested us in a different way. Coupled with my interest in the night sky, the hobby kind of took over, spreading from my back garden to places I could never imagine; sometimes for fun, sometimes as a form of escape.
It’s a great experience spending time in these locations, especially when you are under a dark, clear sky. The darkness provides a blank canvas, on which you can add your image, as you want it. A cheap torch from the supermarket becomes a tool of creation, capable of results you would usually expect of bulky, expensive lighting. Light painting gives a photographer a way of deeply engaging themselves in an image, and another way of looking at the world. That has me hooked.

LPP ∇ Where were you when you got word that you were the big winner?
MO ∇ Returning from seeing my brand new niece for the first time. I got a message from a friend congratulating me and I confusedly spent the next half hour trying to get enough signal on my phone to find out for myself. It was a tense time!

LPP ∇ What did you do when you found out you won?
MO ∇ Stared into the distance with my jaw wide open in disbelief, let out some yelps of excitement, then ate a considerable amount of good curry!

LPP ∇ How are you going to celebrate?
MO ∇ By spending much more time in dark places.

LPP ∇ Now the most difficult question, who would you have voted for to be the winner and you have to pick someone specific no politically correct answers…
MO ∇ You’re right, this is difficult. Every nominated image is capable of winning this competition, which makes me feel quite overwhelmed. I’ve stared at them all for quite a while now, but the one I keep going back to, and wish I’d taken myself, is Dana Maltby’s shot in third place. The composition and low key, high contrast lighting is spot on. The shapes and colour contrast make a great impact, and the flip would have taken a lot of brain power and time to perfect. It is a powerful idea, executed with perfection.

LPP ∇ Anything else you would like to add?
MO ∇ My grandfather passed away two days before I created my image. I wanted to go out and do something he would be proud of, and I’m pretty sure he would be pleased. I need to thank Jan Leonardo Wöllert and everyone involved in the competition. Also my family, friends, and my awesome photo buddy, Xiao Yang, who played a key part in creating this image.

LPP ∇ I am sure your grandfather has a huge smile on his face, your work is something to be proud of. Congratulations!
MO ∇ Thank you!

Below are a few more of Mark’s incredible images and for even more check out his website http://digitalnoisephotography.co.uk

And the winners of the 2013 International Light Painting Awards are…

1st Place Mark O’Neill of The United Kingdom

2nd Place Denis Smith of Australia

3rd Place Dana Maltby of The United States

4th Place Jürgen Gnass of Germany

5th Place Dennis Calvert of The United states

6th Place Brian Matthew Hart of The United States

The top 100 light paintings for the 1st International Light Painting Awards have been selected and the results are mind blowing. All involved should be extremely proud. You want to be inspired by some masterful works of art LOOK here:

TOP 100 FOR THE 1ST INTERNATIONAL LIGHT PAINTING AWARDS!

Lechuzas are witches disguised as owls. These owls they woot at you, they call for you, they are looking for children! If you woot back the owl will attack you! If you run inside a few minutes later you will hear knocking at your door its always an old lady asking to borrow salt but be warned it a distraction, she is there to take the child…

The story of the Lechuza is just one of the urban legends that light painter Jake Ramirez will be illustrating for the book Beneath Texas! Those of us that are familiar with light painter Jake Ramirez’s work know that many of his images have an erie feel that remind you of some ghostly horror story from your childhood, so its the perfect fit.

Together with writer and long time friend Timothy Danger and backed by Filmexchange.org Jake will travel to many of Texas’s most notorious and desolate places and use light painting to recreate scenes from the darkest tales Texas has to offer, and he plans to shoot on film.

The guys are trying to raise some funds to get everything going so if have the means to help out Click HERE.