Using long-exposure photography, Minnesota artist paints with light

Brian Hart’s technique of “light drawing” results in otherworldly images that are half photograph, half drawing. In his newest project, Hart combines a series of exposures — sometimes more than 200 — to create a single mosaic image. Video produced by Maria Bartholdi, shot by McGraw Jones and edited by Adam Geiger of Twin Cities Public Television

Minnesota artist Brian Hart draws with lights and cameras. He likes to think of the one-inch long LED night fishing lights that he uses as his pen; the camera is his paper.

He doesn’t use Photoshop. There is no manipulation of the image in post processing to make his images appear the way they do. Instead, while in a dark space, Hart opens the shutter of the camera to absorb light, the only source of which emits from the tip of his LEDs.

“You can’t see where you’ve drawn. It’s not tangible. It’s just kind of like you project it out there and hopefully you end up with something good,” said Hart.

Hart likens his technique to “making a residue of the space,” but light isn’t an easy medium to control. Not only are you drawing in 3-dimensional space, but you can’t see what you’ve drawn and therein lies one of the major challenges.

“The same way that maybe you’d be drawing with a pen on paper and if it’s a really inky pen, you stop on one spot, the ink will just bleed out. It’s like that times 10 at light.”

Hart first discovered how the camera “records” drawings after he graduated from high school. He was playing with his first ever digital SLR camera and he wanted to see if he could write his name with his cell phone. Amazed by the outcome, he tried to draw a face.

The results were “crappy face,” according to Hart, but the artist had an epiphany. Since then, with the help of his girlfriend Taylor, Hart has been stretching the boundaries of his “light drawings,” discovering new ways to create an effect.

“I really feel like this is an area of photography that hasn’t had nearly enough exploration, where we’re looking at the camera in a completely different way. Not this instrument to click-click-click, capture-capture-capture, but where we’re actually using the camera to make drawings,” said Hart.

“I don’t think we’ve even come close to realizing all the possibilities and I’m just trying to chip in on that exploration.”

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