Photography Highlights • Painting with Light

[XPan]

Painting with Photo Chemicals

This "Embryo" series, was one of the most fascinating ones I have ever done. Why ? More to that later. In this series made with analog film (6x6) and then printed - I painted the body of Per-Olof with a chemical substance called "Selenium toner".

By using a paintbrush and the (undiluted) Selenium toner, those areas would quickly turn yellow-reddish.

Chlorbromid fiberpaper reacts best - and does so quickly, with warm tones. The rest of the image is only weakly toned with Selenium, giving it a warmer overall tone - as well deepens the dark areas as those reacts more, the more silver there is. (It also stabilizes the silver print). However - Selenium toner does not have the same yellow-reddish-brown effect when used on Bromide silver prints - as those react much less, and tend to go towards cool black-purple kind of tone - which just looks weird.

In this way, you can seperate an object from it's surrounding. Also note, that the images you here are digital simulations of the original. So, it can be done digitally without the need of a print. But since I have done it the analog way, I know exactly the effect when using Selenium Toner simulating it digitally.








The Story behind Per-Olof in the 90s.

Per-Olof was my best friend early 90s (we were like bothers): him being the unpolished, raw, very different type of guy. Totally un-swedish - yet very Swedish the other way around (in the sense of Sweden that existed in the 70s, 80s and early 90s). Not afraid of anything, a frank mouth - and a true genius in the field of electricity, with a special relation to thunderstorms. (His grandfather which PeO spend a lot of time with, learning things, was apparently the inventor behind the making of bathtubs (the right composition of the steel to be able to form bathtubs without cracking I assume).

Per-Olof, also called PeO, has a very interesting, strange look. Mike Jagger like, fascinating and weird. Because of the contrasts and opposites he represented. Also his body anatomy, was by nature, fascinating (He did not train at the gym) I don't think I have ever met a personality like him in others. Very frank - even rude - bold - and yet with glimpses of depths and intelligence. Highly manipulative at times - but I had no fear of that - because I knew him, sense it on a deeper level - therefore always been able to say "ok, stop now. No more". A very complex soul anatomy. You know - Scorpio energy; creating an destroying. It all is in there, too.

He was/is an extremely eccentric personality, while at the same time as a photo model - he was super cool, calm, helpful and a joy to work with ! Strange combo, isn't it ?

He became my main 'photo model' in the 90s (I used to work with only friends and buddies). He was my muse and inspiration due to the dynamics between us where positive tilted. The kind of guy you "steal horses with" (only with the difference that none of us stole anything from other people)





The WW2 Bomb station Photo Series
(North of Stockholm)

PeO lived in the area called Märsta, not so far away from the Stockholm Arlanda Airport (43 km north of Stockholm City) - and showed me a place - that was totally weird. Straight in the middle of nowhere, on the country side, there was something he called a "experimental bomb station from the WW2 era". A huge long tube of massive steel and concrete - open. Apparently the tube was used for testing bombs of some kind. (It doesn't exist anymore) And then there was just this one ring lying on the ground...

Because you could climb up onto the tube, there was a little platform, I was able to set the tripod and 6x6 camera, taking images from above - while Per-Olof would simply make slow experimental positions with his body within the ring.

And when he did - the scenery had a strange feeling to it. (All kind of associations bubbling up)

This opposite of massive steel vs the soft body. The ring being able to symbolize protection, but also symbolize entrapment. Internal vs external. The body being able to symbolize vulnerability vs strength. Then the sense of "curling up" / hiding / fleeing...

 

[XPan]

Painting with flash light (1990)

It is one of my earliest experiments with light painting in photography. Here I used a little flash light. The big bulky 6x7 camera was set for longtime exposure (Fuji Velvia 50 slide film) - which means the shutter stays open, in order to collect light. During that process, I fired a weak flash light from various angles a couple of times.

The structure I took images of, was an odd, peculiar one (I don't even know what it symbolized). It was just odd. Located 11 km outside of Stockholm to the east, almost on the verge of the country side - in a place called "Fisksätra" (Fish meadow ?) - where I lived, as it was much closer to my work as a conductor and train driver at the local railway "Saltsjöbana" (Saltlake railway) - whose main station was/is located far outside of Stockholm.


Very little is needed - to create magic

When it comes to light painting... you really can do a lot, with very little tools. All you need is something that emits light. Anything goes at night ! And I say it every time: There is a lot of fun involved. Especially if you are out with a buddy or friend - you can do many beautiful things. The results do not need to be perfect.... just observe, experiment and learn along the road.

 

[XPan]

Painting with Photo Chemicals (1996)

Another way to "paint"- is with photo chemicals. A few times I used this to express feelings of sorrow/anger. Well actually, it wasn't planned at all. More like; in difficult periods in my life, I seemed to be more open to dive deeper into experimental activities (mainly photography), because the emotions that piled up, pushed it into enganging me more, then I would otherwise feel motivated to do. Not to accomplish something particular really, it was more about to do something. Probably it was a strong survival mechanism, I am sure.

In the below photos, I used fully exposed color-print paper - which I treated in various ways with the standard RA-4 chemicals (for color papers (developer / bleach fix) kind of going back and forth, partially developing, partially using bleachfix, using hot water... disrupting the chemical etc. Well you have to experiment yourself to what feels optically nice. (Sometimes it all just turns out into garbage). The structures that appeared in the image, were simple tape, acting like a mask shielding physical from a chemical component. Sometimes I dropped single drops of developer (or bleach fix) onto the paper.

 

[brandon]

Wow XPan! Really beautiful photos, and it's fascinating reading about your techniques and ideas.. thanks for sharing in such detail.

I'm just an occasional photography tinkerer.. did a bit of back yard astrophotography a few years ago, with mixed results. When it worked it was really cool! And I've become interested in analogue film photography since finding an old Canon Canonet rangefinder from the 1960s, in a second-hand shop, a few months ago.. I didn't have any experience with film, my first camera was already in the digital age... It's not very practical now of course, but there's something about it I like..

Having such a limited number of photos you can take, and the process being more purposeful and involved than pointing & shooting with a phone or something, it kinda feels like an antidote to, well, mobile phone over-usage, instant gratification and taking things for granted. I quite like spending a couple weeks shooting a roll of film (oh how I notice what the light is like now), posting it off to be developed, then eventually getting the prints back - maybe they came out good, maybe not - these photos now only existing as a one-off physical object.. and then I can give them to people, or put them somewhere in my house... I dunno, it's just nice.

 

[XPan]

Another form of Photography; Painting with Lights
PORTALS • Subway tunnel photography with long exposure times • 2006-2007

Strange, that I have not continued on this thread revolving light paintings (and other photography) - yet it has been on my mind, but my heart wasn't fully attached to the task.

Anyway, i still have some "light painting" type of photography left to show to you guys. This time, it revolves around the Stockholm subway in 2006-2007 - by tanking longtime exposures while driving, and rotating the camera around the optical axis. Interesting patterns and colors appear ! I think the photo theme of "portals" had more attached to it, because there were inner changes going in me at the same time. One of them was that I got a better (more positive) attitude towards my own profession as a subway driver, regardless outer circumstances.

Today I can not officially do such photography any longer, because it is strictly forbidden by our Chinese company I am working for as a subway driver in Stockholm. But yeah, sure I can still do it... unofficially However, I have to admit that after 25 years in the job, I have done pretty much enough of light painting photography while driving the trains - and my photo archives is plenty filled with such images.

So, no sweat about the strikt rules now in 2022.

In reality, You can get all kinds of image results: from monochrome colored nebulous looking "portals" all the way, to strong, bright and "firework" like images. I also got tons of garbage results, as well - so the good shots take a while to practice, and is also dependent on which section and lights along the subway exist, while you take the images. Anyway - it was fun to experiment in that direction for a couple of years but years later would ebb out again, as it became to repetitive for me.

Tiny camera - easy to swirl

My favorite camera for this type of imagery was a tiny, light camera called Panasonic / Leica "Lumix LX3" (and similar models) - because it's neat size, the lovely panoramic cut - and it was easier to swirl it (slowly) around its own axis, against the driver cabins front window. The exposures are straight of the bat; no double exposures or anything in addition: just a slow, steady rotation in combination with longer exposure times (5-30 seconds), while the train is moving. Later in post processing, just some adjustment in terms of color cast, contrast and color saturation. That's all.

Sometimes a passing train came from the opposite direction, gave the images extra spice with lovely yellow colors, caused by the yellow displays on the upper side of the train, where passengers normally read off the destination of the trains.

The thin blue lights are coming from the light emitted on top of emergency telephones along the subway tunnels every 150 meter.

The strong red colors, come from the red backlights when you sit in the last train cabin. To the naked eye, you never really see a tunnel filled with red light, but the camera accumulates the red light during exposure, making a tunnel turning into an all ghostly strong red tube. (I will show such images in the next part I post later on)

By the way, I almost forgot: the last driver cabin is still a place where it would be allowed for me, to do this kind of photography in 2022... hehe. Albeit only as long I wear uniform while on duty - not as a private passenger, since the company now forbids to travel privately in one of the middle or back driver cabins *Duh!*)

Enjoy the "fireworks"

 

[XPan]

More Light Paintings
Subway Driving in tunnels

I found more images I have made in the past, revolving light paintings (to paint with light while the camera shutter stays open), plus images I spoke about in my previous entry, how it looks like when you put the camera at the subway driver window, open the shutter for 1-30 seconds, and just exposure (but without swirling the camera in circles)


Subway Tunnel Impressions

Note, that the red image differs vastly from reality; the camera accumulates the color from the low light backlight of the train - which is reflected within the tunnel walls. Visually in reality, you barely see any red light other than a little on the rail - while sitting in the back of the train - it is just mainly black. The two other images are taken in the front while driving.









Above: Sometimes a train drives parallell to mine, either in the same direction, or in the opposite direction. While having the camera shutter open for 8 seconds, it looks like that. Below: how it looks like outdoors, when a train meets mine in the opposite direction during 1 second exposure time.

 

[XPan]

Painting with Light

Other images I found, I wish to show to you:

The first one comes from a place, a little (former) winery - afoot of Etna Volcano, called "Monte Gorna", far away from most people - a very beautiful and tranquil place. It was during 4 days weekend in August 2015 in Sicily, which was a way to get to know one another, my boyfriend and I, which just had started to date since June 2015.

During the night we did some experiments with light paintings (goofing around). Nothing really ambitious, but a few turned out nicely. In this image, I used a tiny flash light with traditional light bulb panting Sal's body. It acts as a dot-like light source, with which you can paint or draw things in the air (while the camera shutter stays open).

Then, i waved around with a 3 meter light cord behind Sal; a sort of fluorescent string. Not very bright - but it results into diffuse light patterns in the final image.




Below:
It was made with a huge 1.5 meter large LED light stick with handle and 16 AA batteries - expensive and advanced... and yet, it is perhaps the light painting tool i used the least of all.

It appears to me, that more gimmicky and advanced things get, the more it tends to take away creativity (are my findings). So, during this time in Aug 2017, when Sal and I got married in Stockholm - we made several experiments with this light stick during the night (to see how this ting works). It has features I have not even tested yet, e.g. making something like "animated prints, letters, icons hovering in the air".

It sometimes felt as the effects where too... repetitive and predictive; where the effects become more 'important' that the image. (fun for a while, but then it can get tiresome). So, I have never used it again since 2017...

Most photos where made with exposure times (camera stays open) between 13 to 60 seconds. The good thing about this LED stick is, that it is bright, and you can use it in brighter night environments instead of darker ones.

 

[XPan]

Tiny Colorful Lights
(year of 2008-2009)

I had a period around 2008-09, in which I would use tiny finger (single) LED lights, placing them out (or paint in the air or on the floor) in the corridors of the subway station (Skarpnäck) where the subway staff bathrooms were located. My schedule at that time, was that we had 20 minutes breaks on each end station allowing me to make these light experiments. (Luckily nobody ever entered the location... they must have thought I was crazy or something)

Again, due to the accumulation of both light and colors (60 seconds exposure), the results looked very colorful. In reality however, these lights were faint and barely visible to the naked eye.

Don't ask Sigmund Freud, what he would have said to these images I was located in a very good period of life during these experiments.










Driver Cabin

 

[Lukasz]

Bonsai trees illuminated by sparklers by Vitor Schietti

 

[Lukasz]

Hannu Huhtamo’s light paintings

 

[XPan]

Hannu Huhtamo’s light paintings

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Oh mama mia

I remember having seen these (and similar images). Hanno’s lightpaintings are truly something special and he puts a lot of effort in these creations. But how does he connect the dots so to speak. It isn’t easy to connect light rays into what later looks like an animal.

My husband and i tried several times to draw animals with a light pen, at the Catania harbor in Sicily, while the camera stood open exposing… but the results looked goofy-funny. Like a mix between dinosaur, elephant and a cartoon creatures

Thank you for sharing, Lukasz !!!

 

[Natus Videre]

Oh mama mia

XPan is back!

 

[Tuulikki]

I missed this thread.....silly me. Astonishing images

 

[Nienna]

XPan is back!

Indeed! I've been a bit worried about you XPan. Hope everything is all right with you and yours. It's good to see you back here.

 

[XPan]

No worries

Everything is as it has to be. It was a bit unsettled in my life, with a couple of rough patches, illnesses and an almost-divorce. But it is all ironed out. The good thing about such things is that gives opportunities to takes the evil by its roots while deeper shedding light into the subjects. Those trolls crack when exposed to sunlight.

However this did ‘disconnect’ me to you guys, to the forum, and i felt that i couldn’t keep up my activities here with the same level of energy like before.

However at the same time, I been with you every day. Kind of funny, i always have to think of you guys here at the forum - as if woven into my soul - but in a natural, free will kind of way. I often think of the wise words that have been written here in the almost 3 years i have been a member.

How sweet of you Nienna and Natus Videre, to think of me. I feel deeply humbled - thank you !



Big hug
Ralf