The Light Painting World Exhibition: A Personal Account by Eric Mellinger

About two years ago, I connected with a Russian light painter, Sergey Churkin, who goes by “Chukos” in the Flickr universe. We commented on each other’s work and became Flickr buddies and Facebook friends, as is normal in the social media outlets. Last year, Sergey planned a trip to New York City where I live, and we met along with David Schlaich and a few other willing light junkies for two nights of light painting madness around Central Park and Roosevelt Island. During this meet up, Sergey told me he had an idea for a light painting exhibition of some of the best light painters in the world, and that the exhibition should be on plasma screens instead of having works printed on paper. He told me he was thinking about starting a guild of sorts called the “Light Painting World Alliance” (LPWA) and asked me if I was interested in joining and if I could pitch the idea here in New York. I thought these were great ideas and gave an emphatic yes to everything!

I did not have much luck in my pitches as most New York exhibition spaces are very snobbish in their acceptance of new ideas, but Sergey persevered. In just one year, he managed to attract some of the biggest talents in light painting to join the alliance and post an amazing portfolio of images on the LPWA website www.lpwalliance.com. Most impressively, Sergey received sponsorship for a major exhibit in Russia. Getting sponsorship is challenging enough, but Sergey managed to get an exhibit in the Central House of Artists, the largest and most visited art exhibition space in Russia! With technical sponsor, Philips, Sergey’s vision of an exhibit on plasma screens was realized this past weekend, with 58 artists displaying 100 individual light painting photographs. There is no doubt that this was the biggest group show and most comprehensive collection of master light paintings displayed under one roof in history. I was fortunate enough to have two of my works displayed, as well as travel to this historic event.

The Central House of Artists looks like a massive U.S.A. convention hall! The enormous space contains a permanent gallery of 20th century master Russian painters, including three enormous Kandinsky originals that I had only seen in books. The building is surrounded by sculptures of all sizes and styles and is located across the street from Gorky Park in the center of Moscow. LPWA’s exhibition was part of Moscow’s “Circle of Light” festival, which included laser light shows in Gorky Park, the Central House of Artists and in Red Square, along with a who’s who of innovative professional lighting organizations from around the world.

After an unusually warm and sunny afternoon on Friday, clouds rolled in and a downpour ensued just as the light show began last Friday night. I spent most of the event protecting my gear from wayward umbrellas and the driving rain while also trying to snap a few shots. I managed to get in a fairly decent shot of the finale. The enormous fabric globe was illuminated by computerized projections. For all the “orbers” out there, this was the orb of all orbs! At about 15 meters high, the ball was the centerpiece of the Red Square light show, with the surrounding buildings and laser and pyrotechnic show being used to draw more attention to the globe.

While I was off getting drenched at the light show (and afterwards being initiated into how Russians drink vodka), the light painting exhibition opened at the Central House of Artists. The crowds were large! The exhibition space attracted approximately 5,000 to 7,000 visitors each day, and there was never a time when LPWA’s exhibit wasn’t packed with visitors taking snapshots on their iPhones and admiring the works. In fact, there is no question that LPWA’s show was the most popular attraction of all!

While the admirers were asking Sergey questions about how light painting was done, LPWA had a photo booth set up where the St. Petersburg artist known as Light Graffiti took portraits of visitors who wanted to experience light painting first-hand. People waited over two hours just to have their portraits taken!

The exhibition included works from light painting legends, Eric Staller, Jozef Sedlak, Vicki DaSilva, Kamil Varga and John Hesketh. Legends using film! This website’s very own Jason Page had two works shown, as well as well-known light painters, many of them recognized on this site! The complete list of artists is as follows:

Agentina:
Santiago Di Lorenzo
Armenia:
David Galstyan
Canada: 
Charles Landriault, 
Patrick Rochon
Czech Republic: 
Kamil Varga
Finland:
Hannu Huhtamo, 
Janne Parviainen
France:
Julien Breton, 
Diliz, 
Jadikan, 
MASS Lighter, 
Rezine,
 Swit LightGraff
Germany: 
Nicolas Chibac, 
Alexandr Gnezdilov, 
Lightmark, 
Kunstiergeneinschaft Licht & Form
, Miedza Lightart Photograph, Lichtfaktor, Chris Noelie, 
JanLeonardo Wollert
Japan:
Trevor Williams
Netherlands: 
Hugo Baptista
Russia:
Hory Ma
, Alex Krivstov
, Vladimir Mihailutsa, 
Zahar Nazarenko
, Elena Nosova, 
Marina Nikitina (a.k.a. Onil) 
Victor Ribas
Solvakia:
Jozef Sedlak
Spain:
Alfredo Alvarez
Switzerland:
Anton Julmy, 
Versi
United Kingdom:
Christophe Allirot, 
Diana Goss
, Alan Jaras, 
Neale Smithies, 
Jon Steele, 
Dan Whitaker, 
Rosetta Whitehead
United States:
Dennis Calvert, 
Aurora Crowley, 
Vicki DaSilva
, Steven Erra, 
Brian Matthew Hart
, John Hesketh, 
David Hall
, Jeremy Jackson, 
Jahdakine
, Eric Mellinger, 
Mike Newcomer
, Jason D. Page, 
Darren Pearson
, David Schlaich
, Eric Staller
Uzbekistan:
Natalia Demasova

During the exhibition I was able to meet the Russian light painting couple, Hory Ma, who were absolutely delightful in person as much as their portraits were a delight to see visually. Also, Dan Whitaker (aka quornflake) from the United Kingdom was there. Dan and I got the opportunity to do an evening of collaborative light painting on Saturday night with Sergey Churkin, who was doing the driving and getting lost on our way to the University of Moscow and the new skyscraper district under lots of construction.

Unfortunately, all things come to an end. The exhibition concluded on Sunday evening with dozens of disappointed people still waiting in line to have their light painting portraits taken. Despite running out of time for the fans, LPWA’s exhibition was an absolute success. Sergey and the LPWA Advisory Board will be looking for new venues in which light painting and LPWA member artists’ works can be promoted, as well as collaborative projects and sources of revenue. Given the success of this first event, there is no doubt in my mind that LPWA and its artists will have much to contribute to the art form in the future and big things will happen!

I would be remiss if I didn’t make some shameless plugs. First, if there are interested experienced light painters that wish to join LPWA, please head to the website and register. Registration is free right now! Also, if anyone has more specific questions about LPWA or is interested in pitching the concept of an international exhibition at a major venue in your area, please get in touch with me at ericmellinger4@gmail.com.

Keep the torches burning bright!

Check out this cool little “Test” live action light painting video from Anssi Määttä from Helsinki, Finland. Everybody wants to know how to do this. I am not exactly sure what Anssi used to create this video but currently the best software that I know of to make this type of live light painting video is Light Paint Live, click here to check it out.

Live action light painting // TECH:TEST from Anssi Määttä on Vimeo.

The theme for the light painting photography contest for September/October is Light Graffiti or Light Calligraphy. This is a pretty open theme you can draw something, write something, paint something, highlight an existing piece of graffiti art as long as its your own and/or a collaboration. Don’t just go out and shine a flashlight on someone else’s work and claim you made something awesome. DUE TO SOME SHIT, YOU CAN NOW ONLY ENTER YOUR SINGLE BEST IMAGE! NOT 3.

Images above are by Marko93, Vicki DaSilva, and Swit LightGraff

Here is a little video inspiration of a collaboration from the one and only Tacky Shack.

A Collaboration of Paint & Light from Jeremy Jackson on Vimeo.

Submit your single best image to contest@lightpaintingphotography.com by the 21th of October to win your LPP prize pack and a featured post on the website! Please remember to follow the THEME of the contest and resize your images to 600 pixels on the longest side and 72 dpi. If you do not follow the theme of the contest your image will not be accepted, and as always no F#@&*! photoshop.

The light painting photography contest series is sponsored by COAST, the greatest flashlight company on earth! Click the banner to check out and support the company that supports our art form!

I would like to officially welcome the light painting duo of Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke a.k.a. Lightmark to the LPP family of featured artist. Together they create some of the most beautiful light painted landscapes you have ever seen. Check out their full artist profile HERE.

Lightmark from Geisterhund on Vimeo.

Holy Shit. Ha.

Here are the entries for the July-August light painting photography contest. Everyone PLEASE VOTE in the comments section of this page to pick your top 3 images, the images all have a number in the title (EXAMPLE… IF ONE OF YOUR FAVORITES IS THE IMAGE TITLED “AUGUST CONTEST 11″ THEN YOU SHOULD PUT THE NUMBER 11 AS ONE OF YOUR CHOICES). When casting your vote PLEASE remember the theme of this contest was to create a light painting using fireworks of some sort.

Voters that do not include 3 unique choices in their post will not be counted. In other words no 1,1,1, or 5,5,5, or 22,22,22…..Please pick your three favorite IMAGES based on the image alone.

This light painting contest is sponsored by the greatest flashlight company in the whole universe COAST! The Winner of the light painting contest wins a prize light painting photography prize pack with super awesome Coast Flashlights!!!

Light painting photographer Andrew Hall has some of, if not the best orbs in the light painting game. Recently Andrew’s images were selected to grace the cover of the july issue of New Scientist magazine as a representation of the quantum realm. I caught up with him to find out how and to see if he would tell me how to make an orb like his….

LPP ∇ Hey Andrew congrats on getting the cover of NEW Scientist! Can you give me some background and tell me a little about how this happened?
AH ∇ The art director was familiar with my work via my website, blog and Flickr and was looking for images to illustrate an article on quantum theory. The orb on the cover is one from my archive which I shot in late 2010, entitled ‘Linear Collider’. Ironically, the images and article were to have appeared in the previous issue, but inconveniently someone discovered the Higgs Boson, or ‘God Particle’ at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and my shots and the accompanying article got bumped back in favor of that story.

LPP ∇ Man well at least it still got published, even a month late bumped by the ‘God Particle’!?!?!
AH ∇ The Higgs Boson is such a huge deal, so I was glad it was something important.

LPP ∇ So how did the art director contact you via phone call or email?
AH ∇ The art director and I worked the whole thing out online. I transferred the final 2 high resolution files via We Transfer and they took it from there.

LPP ∇ Is this the first time you have had your images used for something like this? Did they pay you to use the shots, or did you do it just the exposure?
AH ∇ I have shot for many different magazines and publications over the course of my 28 years as a professional photographer, and this was a very smooth job, commissioned by an experienced client who was clear about that he wanted something specific and original and paid appropriately.

LPP ∇ Can you tell me a little bit about the shots, you create some of, if not the BEST orbs in light painting photography would you like to share some of your secrets on how you create these incredible shots?
AH ∇ When I first started making these orbs in about 2010, I wasn’t happy with my hand held spinning, so I built a small, ramshackle rig to enable me to get perfect circles, which I am still evolving. I wanted to be able to spin my LED’s at variable speed, either clockwise or counterclockwise around a fixed axis. I have had so many inquiries about how I do it, and I am amazed people still ask. The technique is a logical one and I worked out how to do it in a day, so I am waiting for someone else to crack it.

Maybe you recall the traffic on Flickr recently about how to make ‘domes’? Everybody wanted to be told how it was done, but it was the dedicated ones who experimented with the principles who figured it out and quite rightly didn’t want to share.

LPP ∇ Yep I’m familiar with that…What are you working on now?
AH ∇ I am working on ever higher speed rotation at the moment, trying to push the envelope of what is geometrically possible with my party store lights and home made components.

LPP ∇ How many copies of the magazine did you buy?
AH ∇ I bought 2 magazines, one to copy and one to read.

LPP ∇ Anything else you would like to add?
AH ∇ I would like to take a moment to say thanks for the continued encouragement from all my Flickr contacts, some of whom really inspired me to persevere at light painting when I was ready to give up trying to match their superb work.

Congratulations again and thanks for taking the time to answer some questions.

Check out more of Andrew’s work here.

The 1st International Light Painting Photography World Exhibition in Moscow, organized by The Light Painting World Alliance, is going to take place in Moscow, Russia, from September 28 thru October 2 this year! The venue for this event is Moscow’s “Central House of Artist”. The Central House of Artist was founded in 1979 it is one of Russia’s largest and most famous galleries that averages around a million, yes I said 1,000,000 visitors a year.

All the light painting photography will be displayed on 14 huge LCD Monitors. The is a great opportunity for you to have your light painting work displayed on an international level! Its open to all light painters, its free to submit, and there is still time. Here is how to do it, the DEADLINE is Sept, 1st, 2012 so get to work…

Send 5 LINKS (NO ATTACHMENTS JUST LINKS) to your best light painting photography to info.lpwa@gmail.com

In your email please specify your FULL NAME (No Nicknames), your city and state, and the country you reside in.

From the LPWA Webpage:

“LPWA Advisory Board will use for artwork selecting the method of “three peaks” –
the maximum of aesthetics, maximum of showiness and maximum light paintings!

1. Maximum aesthetics: How beautiful this work is in terms of traditional notions of beauty? [must help to easily attract usual public to new visual look]

2. Maximum showiness: As far as this work explodes the imagination (inside of the rule of first maximum)? Another words – really feast our eyes on this artwork? [should be easy to remember]

3. Maximum light painting – How this work is turn out well due exactly to the light painting? [must accurately and in sufficient quantity shows the presence of light paintings]

If gallery curator will accept your artwork for exhibition – you will recieve an official agreement and tech settings for images.

If no – you failed this time, but do not worry, you’re lucky a next time.

Deadline to participate is September 1, 2012.”

Don’t forget to join in LPWA official Facebook group to stay up to date https://www.facebook.com/groups/lpwa.info/