Luminous creatures haunt dark landscapes in Hannu Huhtamo’s dreamlike light paintings — Colossal



Art photography

#animals #Hannu Huhtamo #landscapes #light painting

Glowing swans float atop a lake, a jellyfish-like creature hovers in the air, and supernatural alien flowers sprout from the ground in Hannu Huhtamothe ethereal light paintings, which place radiant creatures among dark landscapes. Long exposure photography has been the Helsinki-based artist’s medium of choice since 2008, having generated a robust repertoire of both real and imagined plants and animals.

As shown in the making-of video below, each completed work contains minutes or even hours of heavily choreographed painting, all captured in camera with no post-production editing. “If I’m starting from scratch, it takes about a week to learn how to draw the new shape with light,” shares Huhtamo (previously). “First, I want to do some simple sketches on paper. After that, I’m trying to figure out how to do all the elements using my light tools. I usually divide the shape or a shape into sections and then practice each part separately. Finding the correct location for the life form is the most difficult step in the process because the environment must look natural to the desired creature and be dark enough for the composition to glow.

To create the works, Huhtamo mainly uses optical fibers of various sizes, which give « smooth, transparent light trails that have a nice organic texture. » These fibers require enough power to be effective, so connect them to 1,200 to 2,500 lumen flashlights with custom adapters. Colored filters in turquoise, yellow, pink and green are sandwiched between the two to produce vibrant hues.

Huhtamo is currently working on some collaborations and commercial projects, and you can find more of his paintings and prints information at his site AND Instagram.

“Imaginary Sea Creature 1” (2022)

Top left: “Âmes Libres” (2019). Top right: “Wild Ones” (2021). Bottom left: “The Bond” (2019). Bottom right: “Risen” (2021)

« New Ground » (2022)

From the series ‘Imaginary Sea Creature’ (2022)

“Photon” (2021)

“Starmade” (2021)

#animals #Hannu Huhtamo #landscapes #light painting

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