Last year, when swiping away on my mini screen to the world, I noticed a light painting of friends pouring out of a giant horn done by Vincent Delesvaux (aka Diliz) and hit the thumbs-up button. This picture triggered a heartfelt smile and I learned that it had the same effect on my Spanish artist friend Iris Cebrián (aka Iris Shyroii). We both wanted to share similar light painting experiences and arranged to gather this summer of 2017 at light painter Audrey Pommiers (aka Poms) place near Avignon, France.

I used all my body weight and leg strength to push open the sliding steel gate in front of Poms stone house. The trees in her family’s large yard shaded tables for the diner of light painting friends to arrive. A weeping willow with branches reaching the ground is where Iris and I set up a tent, unknowing that it already belonged to a community of cicadas who threw down a mean beat every night. We usually went to bed after them, so it all worked out once they understood that we preferred them to remain on the outside of the tent.

Iris brought some stunningly delicious ham and cheese eats, rivaling the French if you can believe that! Then there was Samuel from Lille also called the Ninja Roux because of his screw cork hair and soft beard being roux (red). We know his beard is soft because he and Atb discussed how they like to apply coconut oil or karate butter to soften them. Our friend Pala from Belgium, also known as the Master of Nothing, brought bottles of beer although he prefers coca-cola. What a surprise to meet with a Belgium guy that doesn’t drink beer!

Those who had never been to the ‘Zoom’ were secretly impatient to discover this enigmatic place they had seen in so many of their friends’ light paintings. Zoom is the name for the combination of an abandoned Luxury Hotel from the 80s and 90s with an underground nightclub and several swimming pools in the front of a massive edifice, forming a four story U-shape of rooms and terraces. At night the neighborhood youth come with sledgehammers to bust the walls and expel anger, create graffiti art, and write insults on the walls. Seeing us run around in the night with lights sparked remarks from them like,

“Oh look they’re playing with Ninja light swords.”

Walking down the long corridors and climbing steps with lights on our heads all the while pointing to the wall drawings had an exciting, forbidden, edgy feeling, a kind of transgression to an unknown place, setting a mood and context for one of us to launch a theme for creating a group image. One person’s idea can bring the group together for the impromptu experience of creating something new together.  

Imagine instead of a light bulb, a light painting going off in someone’s head, here in Atb’s head. Looking at a graffiti laced window, he sees the pivotal element for a rotational image, Atb and Poms latest specialty. Poms having the rotation handler on her Canon camera dedicated it to this lovely start and I echoed her move with my non-rotation set-up. We each posed sitting in the broken window opening to become the petal of a perfectly geometrical flower. Pala puffed on his e-cigarette to create the smoky backlight effect. We emerged with two flowers, a blue one when we were eight and an orange one when we were seven.

Ninja Roux and Nicolas Luz continued separately around the building, while we, Poms, Iris and I went on the roof terrace to experiment and combine techniques with pleasing unexpected results.  I practiced Poms combination of a silhouette with a wall painting, while Iris incorporated fabric and the color blue; Poms posed as the model in the broken down doorway of the Zoom Hotel. As we saw the sky becoming less black and our eyes grew heavy, we headed back to our tent below the protective willow.