Search Results for: Darren Pearson

As we role into 2017 our Light Painting Art Form is growing faster than ever before. The opportunities that are available to artist across the world have never been greater. One organization that stands on the forefront of creating opportunities for Light Painting Artist is the Light Painting World Alliance! Since 2010 LPWA has worked to build the light painting community by collecting artist profiles, connecting artist, hosting exhibitions, live shows, historical lectures, photo booths, and massive collaborations.

Just a few years ago events specifically for Light Painting were unheard of but thanks to the hard work and dedication of people like Sergey Churkin, the Light Painting World Alliance Advisory Board and its local representatives the opportunities are growing each year! The LPWA is free to join and its free to participate in the numerous opportunities that LPWA offers. I think one of the events that really exemplify the true spirit of the LPWA organization and the Light Painting Art Form is the massive collaborations so I wanted to share some of those…

A little history on the Massive collaborations. The first collaboration was directed by Jadikan at the 2^nd LPWA worldwide exhibition in Paris (2013), when 20 artists all together created a Light Painting animation on Place Concorde. This began a ongoing theme of creating these monumental collaborations at different events the LPWA organized. In 2014 at the 1st LighArt Congress organized by Alfredo Alvarez and the LPWA in Oviedo Spain 34 artists created the IYOL 2015 logo under the direction of Alfredo Alvarez, Ivan Barco and Riders of Light.

2015 was the UNESCO International Year of Light and Light Based Technologies and LPWA was an official collaborating partner. There were 2 LPWA massive collaborations in 2015 the first was in Paris, on Tokyo Palace, and then in Dorum (Germany) a.k.a the LightHouse Meet-up, where 24 artists collaborated and light painted the IYoL 2015 logo over Nord Sea (location supervisor Joerg Miedza).

Most recently The Light Painting World Alliance organized a Massive Collaboration under the direction of LPWA China Representative Roy Wang. Roy worked for two years, connecting the people of China and the light painting art form. Roy’s great efforts gave the LPWA the unique possibility to manage the LPWA Longhushan 2016 Special Event, the 1^st International LPWA exhibition in China!

Sergey of LPWA said “We were so lucky to visited that unique place! Longhushan is wonderful enclave declared Global Geopark by UNESCO, the birthplace of Taoism and modern resort area, legendary Tiger & Dragon Mountains.”

The LPWA event in Longhushan consisted of an International Light Painting Exhibition, A Massive LP Collaborations and a Light Painting Animation Project. The artist that participated were from all over the globe and they included The Lichtfaktor Team, Children Of Darklight Team and solo artists Darren Pearson, Mass and Diliz. Roy and Sergey completed this collective with all of their creative and organization skills.

The “Big Image” organization team consisted of Frodo Alvarez DKL, Edu Cajigal, Ivan Lucio, Sfhir, Nacho Cosio and Ramon Aser.

The most recent meet up brought a team of International Light Painting Artist to Hobgoblins Playground in the Nevada Desert. The participants included Sergey & Natalia Churkin (Russia), Dan Whitaker (UK), Derek Lawrence (Canada), Roy Wang (China), Alfredo Alvarez, Sfhir, Fernando Heras Castan – all from Spain, David Hull, Christina Vasquez, Andrius Sprindys, Todd Blaisdell, Chris Bauer, Kristen Schlecht, Bill Burk, Heather Marie, Marisa Bisping + Nathan, Brooke LaBrie, Matthew Scherfenberg – all from USA, and Ivan Fodor (Slovakia).

The team had two shots in mind that they wanted to accomplish the first was “Light River”. The idea of Light River was to illustrate the importance of water in a human’s life. Water, flowing through the empty and desiccated canyon – as symbol of all water reservoirs on the Earth. This beautiful image was created over the course of 3 hours and took 5 attempts to get!

The other collaboration image was called the Old Spanish Trail project. The Old Spanish National Historic Trail links Santa Fe and Los Angeles across six states and 2,700 miles. It traverses red rock mesas, passes below snow-capped peaks, and fords untamed rivers, avoiding the immense depths of the Grand Canyon and skirting the continent’s harshest deserts. Millions of people followed this trail since early 1600s in hope of a better future. To tribute this living road, created an epic light painting image, which is called “People Bring Their Light to California” – or shorter “Bringing Light to LA”.

These collaborations are just a small part of the opportunities that the Light Painting World Alliance offers to all light painters around the world! If you are not a part of the LPWA you can head over to their website HERE, sign up for free and start participating in some of these incredible opportunities!

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.

Check out part 1 HERE.

Photokina is the world’s leading trade fair for photography and video imaging. With 983 exhibitors from 42 countries, including every major photography brand, and 191,000 visitors its safe to say its as big as it gets in the world of Photography. The multi day event was held in Cologne, Germany and here is the best part, thanks to the hard work and dedication of Light Painting Legend and LAPP founder Jan Leonardo Wöllert, this year Photokina showcased the Light Painting art form in a big way! There was an exhibition of over 100 Light Painting Artist from 40 different countries, Light Painting Lectures, Light Painting Workshops, and even a Live Light Painting Photo Booth in the Olympus Playground right in the front of the show! Jan Leonardo is a very busy man but I was finally able to talk with him a little bit about the event! Since this was such a grand event I also wanted to get another perspective from a few of the Light Painters that attended the event so I asked Pala Teth and Mart Barras to select one single image from the event and tell me why it was their favorite, that will be PART 2. First up is the Interview with Jan Leonardo Wöllert read on below.

Interview with Jan Leonardo Wöllert:
LPP ∇ Jan first off on behalf of the entire Light Painting community I want to say Thank You! What an extraordinary event for light painting art and artist you created this year at Photokina. Can you tell me more about some of the different light painting events you organized for for the show?
JL ∇ Thank you Jason, 
Together I worked with the organizers of Photokina and many other light painters and friends to created the event “Photokina Event- World LightArt” this included a few different areas:

The Photokina – LightArt Congress (PhoLAC) was held on September 23rd and 24th. 
The Congress was a great event that included live music, laser shows, Ironman & Avengers live, workshops, light painting lectures and presentations, and much more in the Center of Photokina!

We had the Digital Light Painting Exhibition powered by ZEISS On 22 Panasonic screens. One these screens we presented over 100 Light Paintings by artists from 40 different countries! The 100 nominated photographs from the International Light Painting Awards 2016, as well as the winners of the International Light Painting Awards 2015 and 2013. The exhibition area covered 150 square meters and was in the lighting area of Photokina. There was also a chill lounge for drawing a deep breath and enjoying the Photokina experience. The Winners of International the Light Painting Award 2016 were shown along with the winners of the 3rd International Light Painting Award on back lighted pictures. These beautiful illuminated images were produced from the print specialist Daniel Ries!

3rd: As special attraction we had the Light Painting photoBOX direct on the middle boulevard. The Live Light Painting photoBOX was on the middle boulevard in the entrance area of Photokina as a main attraction. It was a part of the Photokina Eventworld too. During the whole photokina produced lots LP artist more than 1000 live light paintings with interested photokina visitors.

4th: Finally we had a Printed Exhibition of the Light Painting Award – Photokina Special prize winner 2015 Darren Pearson from USA. Whitewall/Hahnemühle print exhibition

LPP ∇ WOW that is a lot going on! How many artist participated in the digital exhibition?
There were around 126 artist that were shown in the Light Painting Gallery powered by ZEISS together with the winners of the International Light Painting Award 2016.

LPP ∇ Can you tell me more about the live light painting photo booth, who was creating the portraits for this portion of the event?
JL ∇ Bernhard Rauscher organized the Light Painting photoBOX and hosted them together with Sven Gerard, Gus Mercerat Manuel Köstler. We also had a rich program and international guests, including Darren Pearson (USA), Eric Pare (Canada), Denis Smith (Australia), Mart Barras (UK) and many more. On the photokina opening day Ironman was there in person for photographs.

LPP ∇ How did you select the artist you brought to the event?
JL ∇ The idea was to bring light artist from around the world together! Eric Pare is one of the fastest growing international Light Painting artist. He and Kim are a amazing artist couple. Denis Smith is the best Australian Light Painter and was the 2nd Light Painting Award winner in 2013, he is also a very successful and professionel light painting artist. Mart Barras is a very creative light painter and well known too. The basis of my sellection was that the selected artists were role models and/or had a very special message, like the great German Artist Sven Nieder and his Stella Polaris story.

LPP ∇ What was your favorite moment from the Photokina?
JL ∇ The “After phoLAC FUN” there was for the whole community a great moment. Organized by Karin Brodowsky and Marcel Panne from Lichtfaktor was a night a full success with a unbelievable Brazilian Barbecue named Rodizio and a lot of beer. This event was planned to be a big Light Painting together but it was much much more. I saw so many faces and people that we spoke to for the first time after a long time friendship online.

The light and fire artist Rene Albrecht did a fantastic fire show. This “After photLAC FUN” was for a great moment for all of us.

LPP ∇ How many people visited the light painting exhibitions?
JL ∇ In all areas we had more than 16.000 visitors. Alone the Light Painting Gallery powered by ZEISS had more than 11.000 visitors at the six photokina exhibtion days. The Light Painting Gallery powered by ZEISS was the biggest international light painting exhibition world wide and a great success.

LPP ∇ What was the most challenging part of the event?
JL ∇ This is funniest part Jason! The most challenging part was my own speech on the Photokina – LightArt Congress. I spoked often about Light Painting at different events but I was never so unendless, dead, and empty. After a few minutes into my speech I lost my concept and was close to crying. The audience was great, they gave me big ovation and helped me in these painful moments. The Photokina “Event World LightArt” and the PhoLAC were planned so big, there was almost too much to be done! I noticed it during the Photokina, It was overwhelming and I slept only 3 hours each night.

Another very emotional moment was during the construction of the Light Painting Gallery together with Jörg and Garry from EMD also Anna and me. Garry hurt himself very bad. His middle finger was broken in eight places and between him and I we couldn’t prevent it. He had to go to the hospital and after only 3 hours he was back and continue working with us. Thank you very much dear Garry … you old hard bone.

LPP ∇ Who were the sponsors that helped put all this together.
JL ∇ At first is to be mentioned the Photokina. The Photokina and I were the promoter of the “Photokina Event World LightArt” and from the phoLAC. Without the support, power and believe in the success of the event there would have been no phoLAC. Thank you so much Mrs. Pudlat and Mr. Schmale.

Carl Zeiss and Manfrotto supported and sponsored all areas and helped with organization questions and with money. Thank Daniel Ries from the HQ Print Service delivered the best backlight prints I ever have seen. The fotoforum Magazine produzed together with me the fantastic fotoforum special print with all data’s of the different stages, events and areas. They printed 4000 magazines and they were after 5 days out of print.

Thank you very much dear Martin Breutmann for your help and ideas.
But the biggest sponsors and helpers were the humans: My friends! 
First to mention the good soul and my girlfriend: Anna Leonardo!!! She helped me in moments I was more than down. She talked with people when I hadn’t time for conversation. Anna is my artistic muse and my life. Thank you so much Anna Leonardo to be with me in this difficult times.

Garry Krätz from EMD was the Technical Manager and gave all his power, his event equipment and experience for the PhoLAC and the Light Painting Gallery powered by ZEISS. Thank you very much for your unendless power dear Garry.

Joerg Wurzbacher was the organisator of the Light Painting Gallery and one of the brains behind the phoLAC. Thanks you so much for your help, ideas and for your man-power dear Joerg.

Bernhard Rauscher organized the Light Painting photoBOX and hosted them together with Sven Gerard, Gus Mercerat Manuel Köstler. Not to forget the many Light Painting Artist they showed her talents in the BOX. Thank you so much for your great job guys.

Last but not least the amazing making of and event photographer Chritaian Arne DeGroot for the this wonderful documentations of all these events.

There are so many helpers, sorry I can’t tell every story. So I say thank you so much to: Karin Brodowsky, Marcel Panne, Anton Julmy, Jörg Schmidt, Barney Flashlight, Mafu, Ironman & the Avengers Live, Sven Gerard and all the others great humans they I have forget.

LPP ∇ Again it was a truly amazing event that really benefited the community and the Light Painting Art Form so thank you very much to you and everyone that contributed to making this event happen!

JL ∇ Thank you Jason.

IMAGES Used From Photokina Group Album HERE

Accomplished night photographer and educator Lance Keimig has just released the second edition of his book on Night Photography. This new edition is called “Night Photography and Light Painting – Finding Your Way In The Dark” and as you can probably guess from the title this edition has an expanded section on Light Painting! I wanted to catch up with Lance to find out we can expect to find on the inside, check out the interview below.

As our art form grows it exciting to witness more and more people seeing the commercial appeal of light painting. Recently I shared Darren Pearson’s light painting animation that is currently being featured in Honda’s new ad campaign, now I have the pleasure to share with you another fantastic Ad campaign featuring the work of LAPP founder and all around light painting master JanLeonardo. JanLeonardo’s work is being featured in a global advertising campaign by electronic manufacturer Lenovo! JanLeonardo’s futuristic LightArt-Photography with the sleek design of Lenovo electronics is the perfect fit. Check out some of the images and the short interview with JanLeonardo below ↓↓↓↓↓.