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Using light as a paintbrush (pictures)

Finnish artist Janne Parviainen uses long camera exposures and LED lights to create vibrant otherworldly images that glow with intrigue.

Michael Franco
Freelancer Michael Franco writes about the serious and silly sides of science and technology for CNET and other pixel and paper pubs. He's kept his fingers on the keyboard while owning a B&B in Amish country, managing an eco-resort in the Caribbean, sweating in Singapore, and rehydrating (with beer, of course) in Prague. E-mail Michael.
Michael Franco
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1 of 10 Janne Parviainen

Days of Our Lives

Looking at this image you might think that Finnish artist Janne Parviainen draped a kitchen with rope lights and then snapped a picture. In fact, he creates his images using single LED lights with which he "paints" a scene. So in this shot, the strands of white light that cover the surfaces were each individually drawn into the scene by Parviainen.

The artist also says that he never manipulates his images post-production, so all of the artistry takes place while the lens is open -- which can sometimes be as long as 55 minutes.

Check out Crave's Q&A with artist Janne Parviainen here.

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2 of 10 Janne Parviainen

Guernica Now

From the artist:

"The 'Guernica Now' photo is my modern-day version of Picasso's famous painting of the horrors of World War II. Picasso painted people and animals screaming the pain of war and chose black and white for the painting's colors to outline the numbing horror of war. What got me to do my version of Guernica was reading the new TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), an agreement that the USA and European Commission are dealing with at the moment behind closed doors. If the agreement takes place, it would endanger the sovereignty of the signatory states by allowing for a small circle of legal experts sitting in a foreign court of arbitration an unprecedented power to interpret and void the signatory states' legislation for the benefit of private corporations. Basicly after the TTIP takes place, the big corporations would make decicions over states at the cost of people's health and safety.

"I found that information deeply worrying and wanted to make my own version of Guernica set in today's world where endless greed seems to rule over every human right. In my Guernica you find people suffering the [poverty] and the collapsing markets, working underpaid in horrific conditions and falling to the ground abused and homeless. I also wanted to make the version abstract and in black and white to keep the similarities to Picasso's painting. I used different-colored LED lights in order to create different levels of gray in the photo. The exposure time for the photo was 44 minutes."

Check out Crave's Q&A with artist Janne Parviainen here.

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3 of 10 Janne Parviainen

Karma

I asked Parviainen "why Karma" for this shot and here's what he said:

"Karma is one of the longest exposures I have ever made with its 50 minutes of exposure time. I usually don't plan the names of my photos beforehand; after they are finished I sit at my computer and try to think what the photo tells me. Very often I name the photo with a title that first springs to my mind. With this one it was Karma. The room filled with magical-looking blue light and the figure lying on the table seemed to fit to an idea of a spiritual world we cannot see but that might very well always be present."

Check out Crave's Q&A with artist Janne Parviainen here.

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4 of 10 Janne Parviainen

The Madonna

More about this piece from the artist:

"'The Madonna' was taken in a huge abandoned gas factory near Helsinki. The place itself is really creepy with it being totally vandalized and with bullet shells all around (it had been a military training place at some point), but it looks absolutely amazing for photographs. My light painting trips have led me to a lot of places that have been totally littered with old junk so I got this idea to start building these temporary trash sculptures into them. When I built the Madonna sculpture it somehow reminded me of ancient Madonna statues so I figured that would be the direction in which I'd like to take the light painting. The photo symbolizes the frightening attitude people have nowadays to owning material; it's at the same time everything we want but worthless junk after a quick period of time. This, like the photo, evokes worshipping a road that can only lead to bad things."

Check out Crave's Q&A with artist Janne Parviainen here.

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5 of 10 Janne Parviainen

Mantra

Regarding this photo, named "Mantra," which uses a piece of 2D art as a background for the light painting, Parviainen explained:

"Combining real drawings into my light paintings is the most recent addiction in my art. When I first tried the technique I just loved the idea that I could create totally new dimensions in my photos right at my own studio. With this technique I usually plan the whole photo beforehand very carefully because the drawing part can be really time-consuming. The drawing I made for 'Mantra' is around 4x7 meters (13 x 23 feet) and I spent 4 hours drawing it, so when adding the 2 hours that went into getting the the light painting part right, it was quite a lot of work to do."

Check out Crave's Q&A with artist Janne Parviainen here.

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6 of 10 Janne Parviainen

Roads That Lead Nowhere

In this painting, it seems as though you can see right through the limbs of the figure. I asked Parviainen about this effect.

"The transparent effect is done by exposing the ambient lighting of the location in the photo after I have drawn the character in it," he said. "At first I trace my own body in the right position with the LED light, then move aside and let the ambient light expose the shadow of my body away from the photo. After that you can only see the bright light of the LED in the photo against the background."

Check out Crave's Q&A with artist Janne Parviainen here.

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7 of 10 Janne Parviainen

The Time Is Now

I'm not quite sure what the time is right for, but if it leads to this effect, who are we to argue?

Check out Crave's Q&A with artist Janne Parviainen here.

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8 of 10 Janne Parviainen

Ultramarine

Like "Mantra," the light painting "Ultramarine" combines a real-life subject with artwork drawn by Parviainen.

Check out Crave's Q&A with artist Janne Parviainen here.

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9 of 10 Janne Parviainen

Winter's Bone

The 2006 novel by Daniel Woodrell became a Grand Jury Prize-winning film at 2010 Sundance festival, and now it's inspired an evocative painting made from light. Notice the light footprints in the snow.

Check out Crave's Q&A with artist Janne Parviainen here.

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10 of 10 Janne Parviainen

You Gave Away My Everything

This last piece was a team effort.

"The 'You Gave Away My Everything' photo was really a lot of work to do," Parviainen said. "The exposure time was around 45 minutes. For the photo, I had to trace the entire room with one color-changing LED light. The idea for the photo actually came from a horrible flu me and my wife had at that time. I had been feeling really sick for around two weeks and decided a flu can't stop me from creating something spectacular, so I decided to do as challenging a light painting as I possibly could think of. My wife was acting as a model for the two figures that can be seen in the photo. I came up with the name later because it seemed there was a lot of tension between the two characters -- a bit like being in a relationship with a narcissistic person."

Check out Crave's Q&A with artist Janne Parviainen here.

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