The Light Painter

Painters paint, sculptors sculpt, and every one of them has a different technique or medium in which they like to create their work.

However, Hannu Huhtamo does something unique; he paints with light. Using the darkness as his canvas, he uses no physical brushstrokes to produce his art, simply light.

A Finnish photographer, Hannu is accustomed to the darkness from his experiences of the Polar Nights in his native Finland: a period of around 50 days starting in December when the sun never rises. A dark, depressing and sombre time for most, but for Hannu, 50 days in which he is able to release his utmost creativity. And how does he do it? How does he produce these sinister, beautiful and mysterious pieces?

Essentially, he uses incredibly long-exposure photography to “paint” with light sources in interesting environments. Whether he sets up in an abandoned warehouse or an exposed field, he constantly experiments to find the most intriguing visual effect. Preparing with just a few sketches and a head full of ideas, Hannu manages to generate stunning pieces of photographic art that appear surreal and dreamlike against the atmospheric backdrop of a 50-day darkness.

It’s a very cool ongoing project and well-worth checking out his website to see what he does next. Check out some of his work below.