Light… and the Darkness

The Darkness…

To fully appreciate and see the light, there must be darkness and aside from the dynamics of aesthetics, far too many of us battle some form of metaphoric darkness. The news, politics and shady politicians, catastrophes, terrorism, crime and wars all bring plenty of darkness to our lives. and just like a human figure, beautifully innocent to all the darkness yet exposed and vulnerable, we all have very little to withstand the overwhelming darkness all around us. Today’s world can make it difficult to hold on to self worth, self respect, motivation and even a joy of life. That’s darkness.

But… there’s light

It’s easy to forget how light changes almost everything. There’s a renewing power in light, it brings hope encouragement, strength—and life. 

Living in Scandinavia, summers are short, sun and light is appreciated by most—myself included—it just feels good and in light there’s beauty. This makes me look to the light for so many reasons and visually—well, light is essential and while fearing to repeat myself, beautiful.

in this setting, the light so perfectly defined the pure lines of the figure that I stopped everything and immediately asked the model to hold still—to which she promptly replied that she was quite comfortable where she was and wasn’t about to move anytime soon. The sun was nice and warm and she figured she could lay there all day—besides, she said (tongue in cheek)… it’s a nice little break away from the kids.

Wanting to remove all distractions and to make the light stand out more clearly, I toned down all color— essentially to the point of the composition being monochromatic, nearly without any middle tones. This left the beautifully lit torso almost drowning in overpowering darkness, with just enough light to draw our eyes to the clearly defined contours—though sufficiently lit in contrast to the surrounding darkness to allow an innate yet intangible light to remain, and shine. 

… and, that’s the light.

To bring the light to life, only an ultimate stark contrast could make that light shine–aesthetically and metaphorically. When in the depth of darkness, light becomes a rare, sometimes barely visible treasure—yet with the potential to push back even the most overwhelming darkness, a darkness so intense as to seemingly allow no light, threatening to suffocate all life–that’s when light shows its true worth and strength. But, there must be darkness for light to truly shine.