Janne Parviainen is a painter. He uses a canvas and a brush at times, but he also uses lights. Simpel rave toys with led lights in them. All you have to do is trace an image with the light you hold in your hand. You set the camera to have a long shutter time and the whole string of light will be captured by the camera, not just one little bit. The more complex the drawing the more time it will take to make it, as with anything. What’s cool about light painting? You can make three dimensional paintings with it. You can trace an entire room if you like. He started tracing himself, standing in front of the camera moving the light along the contours of his body. That makes it easy to get it right. And as he experimented his light paintings became more complex.
But if Janne is tracing the lights and in the picture himself, why don’t you see Janne in them? He’s made himself a ghost almost, simply by covering himself in a black robe. This black robe isn’t captured by the camera, there is no light from it to capture. Also, because it’s a long shutter time, the light from the background can be completely captured by the camera as long as Janne isn’t in the same spot very long. Ghosts and skeletons are a theme in his light paintings, you can see more on his website. They have a strong story telling power. And although they’re normally scary figures, the bright lights and colors help make the figures more humane. They’re not scary in most of his the photo’s, and not meant to be, although the skeleton photo below does give us the creeps a little bit.
