In the early 20th century a handful of photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz or Edward Weston advocated photography as fine art, while another group along with Ansel Adams thought photography should stay sharp and accurate. The first group created a movement called “Pictorialism”, where they chose soft focus for a dreamy atmosphere; while the second group reacted to this with “Strait Photography”, not wanting to imitate.

Yet renaissance painters used the camera obscura to best reproduce on a flat surface what they could see with the naked eye; just as photorealism and hyperrealism painters in the 21st century made paintings to best resemble a photograph. Considering how many paintings resemble photographs and how many photographs resemble paintings, the idea of imitation has a new appeal, especially in our day and age of computer imaging. However, between light painters the debate between a sharp and a soft focus continues.

The technologies developed around photography have most often been to attain a sharp image, by reducing the time of exposure to light. In the beginning all photography was long exposure just like light painting. Reproductive and documentary photography aims to capture what the naked eye sees, disregarding that all is in movement. Weather close or far, weather still or in motion we can see everything at once in focus. The object of light painting is to capture light and or matter through movement over time. Light paintings often adds or shows what the naked eye cannot see, thus it is a very different way of conveying image and light.

A regular photographer chooses a subject, frames it and then uses natural or electrical light to capture a landscape, a portrait, or an object. Light has a more selective role for light painters. There are three basic techniques in light painting that each use movement. One is where the artist reflects moving light onto matter choosing what to show or not in a landscape, portrait or object. The irregular movements of light on a subject create a painted look. If the subject moves it becomes blurry, if not the subject will appear sharp but soft. Another technique is to move the light source directly towards the camera, making light drawings or light streaks.

As a light painter of twenty years I have watched light and matter dispute their place in my images. I remember being captivated by a photograph called, “Mafia Spaghetti”, a black and white portrait of a mafia guy covered with threads of light looking like spaghetti. I kept wondering how I could see the man perfectly still at the same time as the movement of light traces from Christmas lights above. “Open Flash” was the term explained to me for setting off a strobe light to fix the matter or man while keeping the camera shutter open to record the movement of the hand-held camera.

Inspired by this, I experimented dancing with tiny light bulbs on my fingers, thus discovering how human movements can make light circle, figure eights, and spirals. The streets of Paris became my open studio, including the Moulin Rouge, train stations and along the banks of the river, La Seine. I liked postcard views of the city and had fun adding light graffiti, words or one-line drawings to the scenes. These early light painting included urban settings, a visible model and light streaks. Today these may be categorized as street art; I prefer to call it streak art in reference to the light.