Painting with Light
There’s only so much you can do. There’s only so much you can see or find. There’s only so much you can research. Most often things just occur. Without your understanding or your knowledge. The world exists without a greater plan and without a map laying out all the details of life. This play of fully independent but also fully innocent forces can sometimes be intimidating and overwhelming. But isn’t it miraculous and wonderful at the very same time?
I started using the headline “Painting with Light” for this text and tried to avoid the term “Light Painting” which feels completely different to me. Somehow it’s even the opposite of what I’m after. “Light Painting” is indeed an artistic but a very willful and determined creation with some spontaneous surprises, for sure. “Painting with Light” though means something very different to me. It’s the serendipity of what’s already there that fascinates me, the aimlessness, the effortlessness. A creation that exists without any reason or purpose, without any plan or intention. Art as found.
1/107 s, f/2.2, ISO 20, 64 mm, iPhone 12 Pro Max
I could go even further, I’m interested in creations that only exist because I started realizing that they exist at some point in time. Maybe these creations are completely unnoticeable to others, maybe they are invisible, maybe they are too small or too indiscernable to see or to notice. Maybe they are just beyond the scope of their imagination, or their knowledge, or their attentiveness. Maybe some people are too busy, full of other thoughts and problems, maybe they are aware, but chose to not engage. Maybe they are just wired completely differently, beyond my scope, my limitations. It doesn’t matter. In that moment of recognition the world and I are complete, there are no others, no other meanings or perceptions. I’m immersed. At some point, later, when the decisive moment is already over, I might reflect on what was happening. Then I might talk, share and communicate with others. But it remains sad to realize that communication is sometimes impossible, that there’s no way around it, that only time might tell or heal or unite.
1/150 s, f/2.2, ISO 20, 64 mm, iPhone 12 Pro Max
What I’m trying to say at a very basic level is that you can find beauty everywhere and that it doens’t make much sense to question, discuss or neglect those impressions. Why not just enjoy that unforseeable moment, that completely innocent pleasure, that tiny little secret that just happened between you and a very small, unremarkable, neglectable fraction of the world. It’s all in you, you’re the creator of your own world. Keep that discovery, that revelation just for yourself, if that makes you happy. Or share it with people you think that are able to enjoy what you are enjoying. Or confront people that are wired differently. Make the most of it, whatever “most” means to you.
1/184 s, f/2.2, ISO 20, 64 mm, iPhone 12 Pro Max
I think that’s why I created this space. These posts, these photographs are aimless discoveries, innocent, worthy to me but maybe useless to others. They are in the very sense of the word personal, avoiding the idea of public as good as possible. It’s a stretch, sure. Why put them in a semi public place when I also could tuck them away under my bed? I have no other excuse than feeling the need to share the love. Is it about recognition? Sure, to some degree it always is. But more than that it’s about finding likeminded people seeing or feeling about the world in a similar way. Every new photograph, every new text, every new story is a new beginning. So that’s what I’m trying to do here, I’m painting with light. And sometimes words are my lights.