Joerg Miedza - Painting with Light: Light Art Performance Photography

)
JanLeonardo Woellert ()

Editor: Gerhard Rossbach
Translation: Jeremy Cloot
Copyeditor: Julie Simpson
Layout and Type: Cyrill Harnischmacher
Cover design: Helmut Kraus, www.exclam.de
Printed in China

ISBN 978-1-933952-74-1

1st Edition 2011
2011 by Joerg Miedza and JanLeonardo Woellert

Rocky Nook Inc.
26 West Mission Street Ste 3
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
www.rockynook.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Miedza, Joerg.
[Faszination Lichtmalerei. English]
Painting With Light : Light Art Performance Photography / Joerg Miedza, Jan Leonardo Woellert. -- 1st Edition.
pages cm
Editor, Gerhard Rossbach; translation, Jeremy Cloot.
ISBN 978-1-933952-74-1 (soft cover : alk. paper)
1. Photography, Artistic. 2. Light art--Germany. I. Woellert, Jan Leonardo. II. Rossbach, Gerhard. III. Title.
TR655.M54813 2011
778.7--dc22
2010045721

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Many of the designations in this book used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks of their respective companies. Where those designations appear in this book, and Rocky Nook was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. They are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies, they are not intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the copyright owner. While reasonable care has been exercised in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

JanLeonardo Woellert Joerg Miedza

Light Art Performance Photography

[ Meyenburg near Schwanewede Dolmen KnightVonHagen ]

We would like to thank the following people for their help and support:

• Our sponsor, Rainer Opolka, for his rousing preface as well as for his constructive criticism and creative and moral support. We would also like to thank him for the lighting gear, without which much of our work wouldnt have been possible.
• Our German editor, Rudolf Krahm, for his personal commitment, his enthusiasm, and the time he spent helping to make this book a success
• Matt Crawford, for allowing us to print his article that describes our work in the context of cognitive psychology
• Cyrill Harnischmacher, for his professional feedback, his wonderful design, and for the original book idea
• The Canon Professional Network for the use of their cameras and marketing support
• The people at Carl Zeiss AG for their cooperation and their excellent lenses
• Eskil Simonsson and Joakim Montelius from the Swedish band Covenant, Stefan Poiss from mind.in.a.box in Austria, Tom Shear from Assemblage 23 in the US, and James D. Stark (also in the US) for their help and their wonderful music
• Our families, for their fantastic support and for giving us the freedom we need to spend our nights making art and our days sleeping

JanLeonardo Wllert and Jrg Miedza, August 2010

[ Hftdeich Waterway UfoContact ]

The first time we met Rudolf who was to become our editor at the German publisher dpunkt.verlag, the nights in our home town of Bremen were still long and unusually cold. Winter is our favorite time of year, wich gives us the time we need and the clear, high-contrast, and atmospherically dense scenery we require to stage our Light Art Performance Photography pieces.

At the time we had been wondering how to make our work available to a broader public. We were already considering writing a book when dpunkt.verlag of Heidelberg turned up and helped us to make our idea a reality. We met Rudolf for lunch on a dreary winter day in a hotel in Bremen and so it began.

Our initial plan was to publish a coffee table book of large format images to provide the reader with maximum visual inspiration. This idea eventually turned into the Gallery sections of this book. The text, which we originally wanted to use to caption the images, took on a life of its own and grew to encompass field reports, background information, and instructions on how to make your own LAPP images. The book you are now reading includes not only numerous images, but also elements of our philosophy, our approach to our work, and explanations of some of our LAPP techniques. Two in-depth interviews describe how LAPP has become what it is today, including important milestones such as our first successful Light Ball or the Lightman suit. We also discuss the tools we use, the relationships between LAPP and music, and much more.

One chapter describes how selected pieces were made, including details about the location, the original concept, the execution, and technical parameters such as the aperture and exposure time we used. The Making of ... chapter goes on to explain the individual steps in the creation of a LAPP image. However, this is not a paint-by-numbers book, so our blueprints, the technical details of our lights, and our choreography remain our secrets. Primarily, we want this book to encourage photo enthusiasts and light artists everywhere to go out and make their own art.

We look forward to your reactions, and you can contact us directly at .

JanLeonardo Wllert and Jrg Miedza, August 2010

[ Bremen Gldenhaus LightFace ]

Like all art, Light Art Performance Photography is born of activity.

Vita activa, the active life, requires courage. Many people lack courage and some are even anti-courageous, fearing the resistance that courage meets. But fear is discouraging: fear of learning, fear of doing, fear of love, and fear of life. If repeated failure allows fear to become part of a persons personality, it begins to dominate. This is when capitulation starts and inactivity causes life to lose its meaning. Surrogate repetition replaces authentic experience and the leisure time that remains after work is filled with the shallow diversions of commercial entertainment and mass culture. But entertainment is only an artificial, second-hand reality.

A human being embodies the potential to develop, but a personality can only mature if it is forced to overcome resistance. Just as great love is rarely possible without great pain, real art is never born of small change and simple ideas.

Art is capable of moving individuals or societies because it is based on movement. A work of art freezes a single moment in a complex process that is itself the result of a creative idea. Creativity is rebellion against the gravity of tradition and habit, and is often an act of liberationcreative people invent new worlds instead of subjecting themselves to the restraints of the existing one.