For years Janne Parviainen worked as a painter, happy with two-dimensions, until he came across light painting photography. He realized the technique could bring out that third, illusive dimension of depth in a way paint and canvas could not.
"It was a whole new challenge," says Parviainen, 32, who lives in Helsinki, Finland.
His topographic light paintings circumscribe surfaces and people throughout his house, creating captivating 3-D models in the process. Parviainen first started in 2007 by using small LED lights to trace human bodies, using his wife and himself for models. He quickly grew more ambitious, creating multi-person shots where he would trace himself multiple times, creating the appearance of an entire audience.
"When I started tracing rooms I was like 'this is totally mad, it's going to take forever,'" Parviainen says. "The first one took 33 minutes and I was soaking wet [from sweat] when it was done."
Light painting, the act of tracing shapes or designs with a light-source during a long camera exposure, is nothing new, of course. Picasso dabbled in it and today people are using light painting in increasingly inventive ways.
While many light painting projects can become gimmicky, Parviainen's images build on the format with his own techniques and perspective. He uses a Sony Alpha DSLR-A200 to make the shots and says there is absolutely no post processing. He purposely shoots both JPEG and Raw at the same time so that he can post the JPEGs online without converting them.
From here Parviainen wants to take it one more step by creating stop-motion films within where light-painted characters move through the light-painted rooms. He's already dabbled in stop-motion light painting (another medium that's being explored by a lot of artists) and he says that while time-consuming, the reward is worth it.
"Making light painting stop-motion is madness, but I love the effect," he says.
All Photos: Janne Parviainen
