Phantasm

Light

Photo:

Word-forming element meaning "light" or "photographic" or "photoelectric," from Greek photo-, comb. form of phos (genitive photos) "light," from PIE root *bha- (1) "to shine"

All visual Arts depend on one thing, that thing is light. without light, there are no colors, no lines, nothing. Everything we do requires light and photography is a medium that is completely dependent on that single element.

The word "photography" was created from the Greek roots φωτός (phōtos), genitive of φῶς (phōs), "light" and γραφή (graphé) "representation by means of lines" or "drawing", together meaning "drawing with light".

Light is a phenomenon that can be very hard to explain because it acts both as a wave and as a particle, it travels faster than anything else known. No matter how complex and mysterious  the physics behind light can be, the beauty of photography lies in the simplicity of capturing light.

McCloud talks about how illustrations become a comic book when they are placed next to each other in certain order. In order to capture light it is necessary to understand some basic principles of photography and how the camera works, when setting an ISO, aperture and deciding how to expose the image, one is controlling the light that passes through the lens and gets recorded in the camera. Light also gives us the ability to see color, depending on the object's physical properties such as light absorption, reflection, or emission spectra.

For this project, I decided to explore light and movement  and capture it through long exposures. I used a technique known as light drawing (light painting) that consists in using a source of light and a long exposure in order to freeze movement. Artist like Man Ray, Barbara Morgan and Pablo Picasso among others, have used this technique.

The absence of light and the excess of it creates images such as the ones represented at the beginning and end of the series. A complete black image and a bright white image are the two ends of the spectrum while in the middle there are countless possibilities.

The inspiration behind the project came from a combination of light paintings and the word phantasm that comes from phantasma "image, phantom, apparition; mere image, unreality," and from phantazein "to make visible, display," stem of phainein "to bring to light, make appear; come to light, be seen, appear.

Photography captures still images but because cameras can be set up to have a slower shutter speed, movement can be captured and thus it creates the illusion of movement.

Everything that appears on the images was captured on camera with no external manipulation whatsoever. And it is an exploration of how photography is the art of capturing light.