Thursday, January 03, 2008

Light Painting the mainstream?

Page One:
An AP Photo of "light painting," celebrating the New Year, over the wire, syndicated in newpapers 'round the globe - see it here!

Page Two:
Throughout 2007, Sprint/Nextel unveiled a number of one-minute long commercial spots, using stop-motion photography with digital cameras, a small creative bunch of artists who COULD draw a [necessarily] not-so-straight line, and the time honored technique of "light painting" during the exposure(s). A little different than the approach we Nocturnes use in our NPy (mostly lengthy exposures), but the principle is the same, and the cumulative aspect of "gathering light over time" rings true.



The performance aspect that comes across in these pieces (which I've always felt was an important part of the attraction of/to NPY) is there, as well - one of the producers/participants in the production of the spots even equated the process to a dance. That about sums it up for me - process and performance art - and these commercials, while hawking cellphones, document the craft and art of this thing we do and are some of the greatest promotional pieces for the study of NPY that I've seen in a bit.

This embedded clip was the spot that I first happened onto (and it hit me!). View the 'behind-the-scenes'commmentary about the production here. Favorite quote from the commentary: "Here, it's not about the perfection, it's about the imperfect on that happens." And, see more spots from the series here, here, and here.

(Ever the evangelista . . . )

1 comment:

Andy Frazer said...

There's also a great light painting husband-wife team of Lori Stotko and Stuart Nafey of Half Moon Bay. I was really impressed by their multicolored drawings of lobsters, howling dogs and Godzilla.