This is second of a 2 part series of articles about Light Painting at Photokina! In Part 1 of the Photokina Light Painting series I interviewed the main organizer of “Photokina Event- World LightArt ” and “The Photokina – LightArt Congress (PhoLAC)” Jan Leonardo Wöllert. Here in Part 2 I wanted to get another perspective of the event from two of the Light Painting artist that were invited, Pala Teth and Mart Barras! I asked them to each select a single image from the event and tell me why this was their favorite image. Getting two extremely talented photographers to select just one image from an event all about Light Painting Photography was not easy but thankfully these two were able to narrow it down and share their personal stories about the event.
Pala Teth:
The PhoLAC congress was fantastic, with a lot of highlights, like the amazing improvised collaboration with an authentic and original Ball of Light from Denis Smith (Australia) combined with the famous light skeletons from Darren Pearson (USA) in the middle of a park in Köln (Germany). This example is for me a fantastic symbol of the relationships that the Light Painting creates between people, over the borders and the continents. And there were so many crazy moments like this one during the congress! But the most impressive image for me is when I saw the Light Painting pictures selected by the PhoLAC team all over the huge official screens in all the entrances and halls of the Photokina (190 000+ visitors). The picture I selected was taken by Sven Gerard of a Light Painting by Mafu Fuma, from Aurora Movement. This image by Mafu is one from his portfolio that won the special prize at the International Light Painting Award 2016 and was projected onto one of the giant screens at Photokina!
As a European photographer, Photokina is for me the Mecca of the Professional Image and Photography Business (yes, with capitals, you know what I mean…). The Light Painting was there, everywhere, on big screens. The first time I’ve seen one of these screen, I had to stop and watch. I was like a child, amazed by the show. It has made me really proud of our art form! The Light Painting produces spectacular, impressive, colourful, attractive and eye-catching images. It was clearly visible that these images are able to compete with the splendid images used by the brands for their marketing needs. For me, the fact to show these LP images in the Photokina has added a huge load of credibility to our art form.
Mart Barras:
The photo I’ve chosen for you is one that myself, Phill Fisher and Kim von Coels (The Krumble Empire) created at the PhoLAC After Fun party hosted by Karin Brodowsky on the Friday evening. I love it because after such a great day, we all had the chance to hang out, share amazing food and drink, talk and most of all Light Paint together. A perfect end to a perfect day, old friends and new celebrating together our art-form, something I’ll remember forever 
To be fair all the photos I took are special for me, for different reasons so it was hard to pick. I have a great one of Denis Smith running around the hall, just before he went on for his speech. Dennis really summed the whole trip up for me, with his energy and obvious passion for light painting, something which we all feel about our art form and was present throughout all the speeches and visible in the work and time and effort that Jan and his team had put into the event.
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