Project by: Mateo Hernandez (12th Grade), Zahra Aboulwafa (12th Grade)
Project Advisor: Susan Now
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Susan Now and Allison Isbell

Artists’ Statement:

As photographers who are comfortable with regular film/digital camera, we decided to broaden our scope and attempt a form of photography that was generally unfamiliar to us.  Through constant brainstorming, we decided to experiment with light painting.  In the initial stages of the project, we understood that there would be a lot of trial and error, however, at times we weren’t sure how to move past them.  With the guidance of Susan Now — who constantly provided us with new materials and techniques to try– we were able to create work that we are proud of.  In terms of execution, we often benefited from the fact that this was a two person project, which allowed us to bring our own unique perspectives to creating a new photo.  Doing so allowed us to use each other’s critique in order to improve our own work.  In all, although we are proud of the work we produced, we understand this was a generally experimental project and would love to work on it more in the future.

We wanted to learn about the form of photography known as “light-painting.” To do this, we set out to create artwork by utilizing a camera’s ability to take a long exposure photo with a moving light source as the subject for the photo. We were excited to do this project because this is an area of photography that interests us and is not something that we have had the opportunity to do in our photography classes. Our goal was to learn the basics of light painting by creating photos through an experimental process. Through this process, we were able to understand the basic techniques and create a set of “light-paintings” that reflect our unique outlook.

Also, the five photos we are exhibiting are only a sample of the work we completed throughout the trimester and we feel it’s important to note that behind every photo, there were countless attempts and testing.

To create this photo, we outlined the person in the photo with a penlight and told her to spin the green string light in her hand. The effect of the motion created a light substance of some sort in her hand. This photo took over 10 tries in itself, as we were juggling with keeping her still, making sure the light effectively outlined her, and the green light giving us a motion effect.  In all, we are proud of the result.

To create this photo, we attached small lights to little catapult rockets, and we shot them into the sky. We did multiple at a time, and it gave us this result.  It was difficult for us to structure a photo like this, as the angle of the camera pointed towards the sky–requiring one of us to hold the camera steadily with no tripod–, so we were hoping for the best.  We both agreed that the result was interesting and we were inclined to explore this technique more.

To create this photo, we tied string lights to both ends of a wall and pulled the lights once, allowing them to bounce and give us this motion effect.  Interestingly, the green light didn’t show as much of an effect as the blue light did– however– when we took a similar photo, the green light showed motion while the blue didn’t

This is a still photo of one of the tools we used, a green string light. In order to maintain the shape that it has in the photo, we taped it to a piece of cardboard that one of us held while the picture was taken. We used photoshop to give it a seamless effect, hiding the cardboard as best as we could.

To create this photo, we used one of our friends as the subject and strategically placed him in front of multiple shelf lights. Then, one of us outlined him with a penlight. The difficulty of this photo was producing as many symmetrical outlines as we could –which took many attempts– also due to camera limitations, our lighting work had to be expedited. To sharpen up the result, we used photoshop to finalize our work.

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Project Proposal:

Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?

We would be attempting to learn a new form of photography known as “light-painting”. To do this, we would create artwork by utilizing a camera’s ability to take a long exposure photo, and thus, use a moving light source as the subject for the photo. We hope to complete this project because it interests us but is not something that we normally have the opportunity to do. We hope to learn the basics of light painting to create photos.  With the help of Susan, we want to understand the intricacies of light-painting as well as using our unique outlook to develop new techniques.

What is your proposed outcome? How will you be able to demonstrate successful completion of this Project?

We hope to create a journal in some sense in which we would document the weekly progress that we make.  Although we don’t necessarily want to formally make a website or a book, we would create some kind of method in which we would be able to display our results.. possibly through printing. Also, it’s important to note that we are in a primarily experimental stage, meaning a lot of the work we will be doing will require us to test things we are not familiar with, therefore, it’s a trial and error to an extent.

When do you plan on meeting?

Tuesday X-Block