Luminous landscapes

Normally light is only the means to create a photographic image.

But here I've crossed the line:

Light has become its own motive.

In this collection I have broken two fundamental rules: Make sure there's enough light, and keep the camera still.

Instead I went out into the night, and kept the camera moving while photographing moving objects. No flash, but long exposure.

Photographing in the dark and shaking the lens at any photon drifting by. Sounds like a recipé for endless chaos?

Yes, most of the times, but now and then new order arise from chaos, presenting views I would never have envisioned myself.

It sounds like a paradox, yet such photos may be shaken and sharp.

Symmetry

The graphical element is mirroring, sometimes twice. A mirror almost always increases order, and it also creates life. At least illusions of life.

Faces and bodies seem to appear along the axis. Not so strange, life forms are usually more symmetric than non life...

Mads Dam, March 2011

Light quotes

Night is more alive and more richly coloured than the day. - Van Gogh

A picture must possess a real power to generate light, and for a long time now I've been conscious of expressing myself through light, or rather in light. - Henri Matisse

He whose face gives no light,
shall never become a star.
William Blake

There is such a thing as the impression of luminosity.
Ludwig Wittgenstein

There is strong shadow
where there is much light.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I love lying in darkness.
Nicole Kidman

Of the original phenomena,
light is the most enthralling.
Leonardo da Vinci

In nature, light creates the color.
In the picture, color creates the light.
Hans Hofmann

Mehr licht - Goethes last words

I have seized the light.
I have arrested its flight.
Louis Daguerre