Richard Walker – Illuminated

Richard Walker – Illuminated

If you haven’t heard the term “light painting,” you are in good company. Balmain photographer Richard Walker says he finds himself “spending a lot of time explaining” the art form he has spent several years exploring, returning to his passion for photography after a career in television directing.

There are two components to his exhibit at the Art Gallery On Darling: indoor and outdoor light paintings. Both employ the manipulation of light as it interacts with a camera and long exposures. In the studio, he sets up flowers and uses a specialist device to highlight the contours and colours of the flower. Outdoors, he sets up his camera on a long exposure and “paints” the subject with a torch. He does this as dusk falls, using the last of the natural light to emphasise the light painting against the “sky does the rest of it.” Like a sleuth for light, he dresses in dark clothing so as not be seen in his light paintings.

Walker says that light can “accentuate the texture of a wall or the texture of bark … light shines on the subject.”

His interest in light painting was inspired by his Leichhardt garden. Having planted columbines with his wife, she was away when they bloomed. Wishing to capture their vivid life for her, he started on this light painting journey. Bringing light painting outside, he says, “was just the next stage.”

Richard Walker will be on hand every day of the exhibition, to answer questions about his art and techniques.

Feb 2-7. Art Gallery On Darling, 307 Darling St, Balmain. Info: www.artgalleryondarling.com.au

By Olga Azar

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