Last Thursday night we welcomed David Gilliver, one of the most imaginative and creative fine art and advertising photographers working today.
One aspect of David’s work involves Light Painting. This involves long exposures, during which the photographer utilises different sources of light to ‘ paint ‘ a sculptural form into the air in a specific location within a photograph. Imagine a multi coloured globe, perhaps 8ft high from pole to pole, consisting of thousands of thin lines of different colours curving evenly around from one pole to the other, all drawn in the air by the photographer while the camera shutter remains open. Because he is constantly moving the photographer is not captured, but the lines of light he creates in the air are captured.
Now imagine that globe by the sea with the night sky in the background and the landscape to one side. It’s hardly surprising that some of the largest global corporations on the planet use David’s work in their advertising.
Another of David’s creations is an imaginary world where, for example, stems of broccoli appears as large as trees. Finely crafted, and tiny, models of people or animals are placed into this world appearing to live their own lives. These figurines might be skating on an ice cube or leveraging open the ring pull on a drinks can for example.
An example of that imaginary world recently won him a British Photography Association award for the year’s best Macro image, for the second time. His winning photograph featured Zebra taking refuge within a Barcode with lions prowling outside seemingly unable to enter. You can understand why global advertisers tap into David’s creativity.
The previous year his winning photograph featured a facemask substituting for a competitive swimming pool, with the folds in the facemask creating the lanes in the pool. Tiny swimmers are competing in a race with their friends and families watching from the sidelines.
This was a truly fascinating evening.
Next week our club members hold our A.G.M. The following week is our Presentation evening followed by a talk by historian Ian Scott.