We are all very excited here on Planet Jupiter about some of the innovative campaigns we’re working on. One of those is seeing us collaborate with the famous photographer and light artist, Michael Bosanko (you may remember some of his work from ITV’s X Factor).

We’re creating a brand new graduate campaign for our friends at Sainsbury’s that will see Michael Bosanko create some really unique photography using light art – watch this space for some of the images. In the meantime you might want to take a look at some of Michael’s work;

http://www.michaelbosanko.com

Michael Bosanko is a light artist who uses the technique of long exposure photography to create beautiful tracery of light, frozen in midair.  His site has a prolific collection of images and an interesting “How Its Made” video on Vimeo.

Michael Bosanko is actually the man behind the TalkTalk light adverts, “Brighter Phone and Broadband” provider. He produced images with a giant green dinosaur, glowing flowers, an electric bull and the queen herself.

Bosanko uses long-exposure photography and swapped paintbrushes for an array of torches to paint with light. He uses five different torches to created the colour, he covers the front of them in coloured paper to created the five tones. He then leaves his Canon camera on a long exposure to capture his amazing art work.

Here are some of Michael Bosanko’s amazing photographs…

© Michael Bosanko

Everyone has seen light pictures of slow shutter speed light during the night on which the light is showed as person, word, or just a circle. The Welsh artist Michael Bosanko is a light graffity experimental photographer inspired of light and the way in which he could create and express his own imagination. He usualy took his pictures outside and as he said “the environment also plays a big part in my work, drawing from my love for travel, discovering new landscapes, cities, anything that switches my brain into ‘photograph’ mode (a switch that is never really turned off!)”.

© Michael Bosanko

I like his imagination and the way he represent it. Colours, light and appropriate background, what more? Using the environment as a stage he perfectly fit with it. On the first picture above, I like the perfection of the tree, the little shiny spots and the red tunnel light. Next one excite me with the water ground and the move of the light as a reinbow energy train goin fast forward to the city.

As a photographer, I’ve been trying this kind of protographing. I was interested of writhing in front of the camera.

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Recently I’ve found Montreal, Canada’s artist Patrick Rochon. Living in New York, Paris and Tokiyo his impressing pictures based on capturing the movement of the light with photography and video, couldn’t left me pass by. Rochon’s light painting he creates using lasers to illuminate in ways that create an eerie, otherworldly feel in the stunning portraits.

I like his way of mixing his magical light with people, making them more fantastic creating other reality. The important stuff needed, in my opinoin, are dark place, person, different lasers and lights and, of course, huge imagination and idea of what exactly want to represend. But as we all know, sometimes one ‘accident’ cound make such a great picture.

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Another American light artist is Eric Staller, b. in 1947 and  best known for his Volkswagen Lightmobile, made me stop and look over his interesting portfolio. Loving working with his hands, “watching and feeling an object take shape. I fall in love with materials and techniques that have other uses not ordinarily associated with art. I distill the essence of a way of working, get to know what a material can do. Then, just before I get too comfortable, I get an itch to move on to the next unknown” as he said. Light drawings, light sculptures at studio and under the sky, he use a lot of different lights and cable lights.

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Alan Jaras is a British light artist.  A majority of his works are analogue images of the refraction patterns from a beam of light passing through a transparent object (Jaras uses pieces of textured glass). The image is captured directly on to 35mm film, no camera lens is used (a photogram using film instead of photographic paper), the transparent object replaces the lens. Jaras introduces color by placing specially prepared colored filters directly in the light beam. “These images have not been computer generated or color treated. The colors you see are a faithful reproduction of those captured on film,” says Jaras. [Resource]

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Another different technic is Dean Chamberlain extending exposure times. Leaving the shutter opened for up to five hours he literally paint his photograph. In front of his wide open shitter he make the space around him as he wants to, using, carried and projected different lights for creating stunning colours and shapes for luminous and colourful images. In his extremely long exposures he uses as well and a flashlight and coloured  gels for illuminating each individual element of the composition.

Passing time - 26.02.2011 © Jaskirt Dhaliwal

One of the AS Level exam questions is coloured light, even though I’m on half term  it seems that I am becoming increasingly fascinated by painting with light and taking photographs of it. Despite not having to prepare to do an exam on it!

It’s  a new technique I’m learning and practising. As you might know (or might not as is the case) I shoot considered portraits more often than not. So this veers away from my usual style I guess, but I’m enjoying the process.

So a bit of technical information, I took this on f22, shutter speed 20seconds and ISO100. Shot on my nikon d200. I’m hoping to do some HDR versions of painting with light shots, again something new for me and I’d like to try out different spots in Birmingham or Bristol (where I live and teach). So hopefully more of those as and when I shoot them.

Some really fantastic (and totally usurps my attempts) work I admire in this style of work is light artist Michael Bosanko’s work. Considering his happy accident of creating this style of work happened in 2004 and what he has achieved since is vastly inspiring. Demonstrating that if you have the passion, creativity and drive to succeed in something you love nothing is impossible.

“I quickly discovered that by putting the camera into long exposure I could move the camera in my hands and use the moon itself to write out a word.” Michael Bosanko

- This is definitely something I’m going to try out! Any suggestions as to which word I should try and draw?

The blazing inferno Bosanko creates at the feet of the Angel of the North makes the picture come alive. It’s echoes the feeling and imagery my mind concocts when reading the words on a page of a book. It’s simplicity is it’s beauty.

“Ever since then (2004) I have been on a solitary journey of discovery, pushing the limits of my photographic knowledge, my imagination, and always overstepping the boundaries of what is feasibly possible.” Michael Bosanko

© Michael Bosanko

Today, my first artist of the week is from Welsh named Michael Bosanko who has traded in his paintbrush for lights and a digital camera. Using only these tools, the 39-year-old artist creates light graffiti using five colored flashlights and by leaving his digital camera set for long exposure.  I’m sure you have all seen the Sprint commercials with the Architecture in Helsinki song, but this is a form of graffiti that can be shared with the world without doing anything damaging or illegal.

To create these light effects Bosanko covers an ordinary household flashlight with acetate paper which allows him to bring different shades of the color spectrum into his art. As an abstract artist, Bosanko tries to incorporate a sense of the surreal into all of his photographs.

Here’s what Bosanko has to say about his work:

“I use my torches like an artist would use a paint brush. I employ an exposure that lasts from ten seconds to one hour and then try to let my art manage to create what I had imagined. What I feel I am trying to convey is a sense of an aesthetically pleasing shape that clearly does not belong in that particular place or area.”

Bosanko is causing waves in the photographic art-world and says he plans to take his light graffiti to exhibitions around the country and possibly internationally.

Check out his site here.

coolest thing i’ve seen today…

Welsh based artist, Michael Bosanko, creates these amazing images with light torches and long exposures and doesn’t Photoshop! 

The rest of his stuff is pretty great…check it out here

Cardiff artist Michael Bosanko and his light graffiti have popped up in the national press quite a bit over the last few days so I have emailed him to see if he has done any work in Adamsdown and about the possibility of doing an interview.