My second experiment exists thanks to a sudden craving for Tim Tams. As I was searching the nearest IGA for this addictive chocolate treat, I noticed some sparklers in the party aisle. Upon seeing them, I immediately knew I had found the beginnings of my next project. I absolutely love fireworks and ended up buying 82 sparklers in total, just in case. Then I came home and began doodling and brainstorming for my project:
I wanted to paint images, stories, and feelings with the flames of my sparklers. After some research, I found a way to do this using the help of some friends, a nice camera, and a long exposure setting.
Around 10:00 pm on Wednesday night, we went outside and created a series of sparkly portraits. During the process, we had to talk our way out of trouble twice: once with some patrolling security guards, and once with some angry sleep-deprived students living nearby. However, it was so much fun and definitely worth the risks!
The first series of photos is called “Dancing in the Moonlight.”
In order to capture both my friend’s and my “inner flame”, we decided to play music and dance around with the sparklers, revealing our unique dance patterns. The song my photographer chose was “Dancing in the Moonlight” (thus the series title) by King Harvest. This link shows the making of these pieces: https://youtu.be/g8kZ0UOPgQI
The second series of photos is called “Self-Portrait.”
My next thought was to make self-portraits using our sparklers. Since we could not actually see the lines we were creating, our portraits would be mostly based on feeling and memory. We each played our favorite songs when it was our turn to “paint” the sky. I felt this would help us to be more comfortable, free, and authentic when creating our faces.
With only 15 seconds to create our portraits, our creations were much more geared towards expression than accuracy. However, when we saw our finished photos, it was easy to find a bit of each of our personalities in the faces. For example: I focused on the details and aspects of my face, rather than the face itself (left photo); My friend Ally (middle photo) focused on her curly hair, one of her favorite characteristics; and my friend Basil (right photo) put emphasis on her eyelashes, something Ally and I did not even consider on our faces.
This link shows the making of my self-portrait: https://youtu.be/zfguQricnSc
The final series of photos is about “New Dimensions.”
I liked the idea of merging the flame lines with a person as well; mixing the invisible with the visible. This was interesting and tricky for me as I had to imagine all of my lines in the context of my model. In the first photo I decorated my friend, making her into something different in the photo than she is when seen by the naked eye. In the second photo I created an imaginary world for my friend, only to be seen through the lens of a camera. In the final photo I thought to give dimension to the trails of flame by tracing many sparklers through the air at once, creating a ribbon like effect.
I absolutely enjoyed learning this new photography trick and playing with fire, and I will definitely be doing more of it in the future!