“Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.”
This quote, from the Renaissance scholar and humanist Erasmus, nicely introduces us to the work of photographer and filmmaker Eric Paré. The Montreal-based artist commands a following of nearly 100,000 on Instagram followers as @ericparephoto, and counts a TEDx talk and features with MTV, CNN, VICE, and more in his recent past. But all of this notoriety stems from his captivating signature style of “light painting,” which utilizes a long-exposure display of artificial light to draw focus to and highlight a subject from out of the darkness.
Paré is self-taught, and began building his skills by voraciously reading online forums, citing dpreview as especially helpful. As for the light-painting technique that now defines his work, he admits that there are no schools for it, telling Adorama that “it’s mostly a matter of experimenting with what suits you best.”
Adorama spoke with Paré to get an idea of the challenges of creating images while relying on many different aspects, and how he manages travel with all his light-painting gear.
Adorama: First things first. What is your gear setup and your usual editing workflow?
Paré: I like to have two cameras side by side to shoot at two different focal lengths (14mm and 24mm most of the times). I use DSLRs and various sets of lenses. The rest of my usual equipment are sturdy tripods, powerful flashlights, radio remote triggers, plastic tubes and feathers.
I am very used to people who think that my images are made in Adobe Photoshop but, in fact, everything is real. This is long exposure. It is absolutely possible to get this “in camera.” I don’t use any presets or filters. I shoot in RAW mode and I do color grading, but I try to avoid spending too much time in front of the computer.
Adorama: What would you consider to be elements of your signature style?
Paré: I do one-second light-painting portraits, meaning very crisp images using a very simple source of light. This is what have been defining my style for the past five years, either in studio or outdoors.
Adorama: Was there a moment you remember first falling in love with photography?
Paré: Not with photography, but with visuals in general. I was at the dentist waiting for my turn (I was probably nine years old), and I was fascinated by the images in a magazine. I started doing photo editing at the age of 13, but it’s only in my early twenties that I started to take pictures.
Adorama: How much preparation do you put into an image? Can you give an example of an image or project of yours which required a great amount of prep?
Paré: A lot of preparation is put into a single project: finding a destination, choosing the right moment to go according to the visuals I wish to have (like moon phase and season), doing location scouting, preparing the light-painting equipment, finding the right composition. Once we chose a location for a shooting, we get there many hours in advance, but once the blue hour comes, everything goes pretty fast. I like to have a workflow that is fluid and instinctive even though there’s a lot of technical aspects to it. I’m with the model crafting the light and not only behind the camera, which makes it seem more like a “performance.”
Adorama: What are the challenges of traveling with the gear for your light-painting images? Do you take any extra precautions with regard to the airlines or your plans to make sure you get where you need to be, on time, and with everything intact?
Paré: There are quite a few challenges! First, we can never really be sure that the light painting tubes will get there on time. It’s an odd size of bag and very lightweight, so it can seem suspicious, I guess. So far we’ve been pretty lucky. With all the traveling we’ve been doing with those tubes for the past two-plus years, we’ve never lost them.
We are currently working on designing a new portable kit that would be easy to travel with.
Traveling with batteries is the second main challenge. I need a lot of batteries depending on where we are going! But we always manage to split the gear between Kim [Henry]’s and my bags to avoid any problem.
Adorama: How do you make a living right now, and how big a role does your photography play?
Paré: Light-painting has been my main source of revenue for many years. It also pays for some of my team at my studio. Our tube light-painting work and 360-degree imagery are profitable.
Adorama: How do you describe your 360-degree bullet time project, The Xangle, to people for the first time?
Paré: I rarely have to explain it. It’s easier to show than to describe. I use the technology mostly to create light-painting art, but we also make the full software suite needed to control cameras, calibrate, preview, and publish. We provide licenses and support for the software to many agencies around the world.
Adorama: Your Xangle set-ups range from 6 to 132 cameras. What sort of customers approach you for this sort of imagery?
Paré: We get contacted by brands to do live light-painting at events (Coachella, SXSW, etc), or by agencies who want to create music videos, films, advertising, or TV stunts.
Adorama: What do you wish you could photograph in bullet time, but haven’t yet?
Paré: I have been dreaming about increasing the density of cameras to improve the motion of the light-painting. That is something that is shown in my “Through the Lens” video with Adorama, where the light is moving around Kim while the cameras are triggered one after the other. I’d like to double the number of cameras to smooth out that kind of process.
Adorama: You’ve traveled to the Salar de Uyuni salt flats of Bolivia three times now. What do you love about this location for your photography?
Paré: The salt flats of Uyuni are unique. This place feels like home for us. We’ve been traveling for years searching for the purest landscapes. This one is impossible to beat. And what’s really interesting about it is that it’s different every day. The clouds are creating the landscape.
Adorama: What response do you have for those who may call light painting a “gimmick,” and would you take this as a compliment or critique?
Paré: Before I started, I did think that light-painting was very childish (drawing a sun, a star, a heart…). I had no idea that it could be used to create such interesting imagery. I started using light-painting because of the constraints of working in a full, 360-degree environment. And, with this, I came to know very interesting light-painting artists (Patrick Rochon, Pala Teth, Darren Pearson, etc). I’m glad to be part of this incredible community now, and to promote various artists every day through my social media channels. There is still so much space for creativity and new visuals.
Adorama: What’s your single favorite photo you’ve captured and shared, and can you tell the story behind it?
Paré: This one (directly below), taken on our last night during our second visit to Uyuni. This is exactly what we had in mind for that trip, but we had really bad weather for eight days before being able to capture this one. It also represents what’s pure about the technique; it’s created using a single tube, a flashlight, and a feather.
Check out Eric Paré’s full Through the Lens: Canada episode below:
For more inspiration, check out our Through the Lens: Canada-influenced Spotify playlist here:
