OFFmag: Jason D. Page

ABOUT THE IMAGES:

I create my photographs using a technique known as “Light Painting”. In almost total darkness, I open the shutter of my camera for an extended period of time and use various light sources to create color and designs within the frame. Every light painting is unique and unrepeatable. To produce my images I use everything from ordinary household flashlights to chemical concoctions of nitrate and potassium chlorate to create explosions of light. There is NO PHOTO EDITING used to create anything you see in my images! All of my light painting images are created in real time and captured to the camera in one single photographic frame.

ABOUT THE ARTIST, JASON D. PAGE:

Jason D. Page was born in Newport News, Virginia, the son of photographer Allan D. Page and homemaker Jeannie Page. At the age of 3, Jason and his family relocated to Palm Beach, Florida where his father served in the Coast Guard Station on Peanut Island. Jason started school a year early. He excelled in the arts at an early age; from painting to sculpture, he won numerous awards throughout his school career. Jason re-discovered his love of photography and cinematography soon after graduating high school and founded Starbird Productions. Jason went on to study film. After graduating college in 2004, he took a position as the media production specialist for the Palm Beach Community College Film and Television program. Throughout his years working at PBCC, Jason focused his cinematography on his love of surfing. He produced, shot, and edited 4 feature length, award winning, action sports movies.

In 2004 while shooting long exposure seascapes on a full moon night Jason accidentally bumped his camera. When he checked the image and saw the streak that the moon had left across the sky it was his epiphany! Jason says “From that moment on I was a light painter, though at that time I didn’t even know what I was doing had a name. I had been shooting long exposures for years before this, I don’t know why it never clicked for me before that. I had made the classic long exposure shots of car lights going down a street back in the film days, thats why I say light painting found me instead of I found it, it had to wait until I was ready.”

Jason is widely recognized as a leader in the current light painting movement by fellow light painters and art critiques alike. He produces groundbreaking work on a regular basis. Jason’s biggest inspiration and mentor is Dean Chamberlain, the father of light painting photography. Jason’s light painting work has been published internationally in print as well as online. He has exhibited his work in numerous shows and galleries; including locations such as Palm Beach, Miami, Amsterdam, and Moscow. Jason is also one of the biggest promoters of the light painting art form itself, in 2009 he founded the largest worldwide resource for light painting photography artists and information lightpaintingphotography.com/ Jason says “I feel I have been blessed to view the world in a unique way. My cameras allow me to capture how I see and share my visions with others.” With his innovation, and the ability to capture his stunning visions in a unique fashion, Jason D. Page deserves recognition as one of today’s best emerging visual artist.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

My hope is that my work will inspire the viewer’s faith, imagination, and creativity. When someone witnesses one my images I want them to imagine they are there, seeing an actual event taking place before their very eyes. Every one of my images has a story and I want my work to provoke the viewer’s imagination to create the story that goes with the event they are witnessing. Just as much as my images are about the photographs themselves they to are about the process that goes with creating and capturing the image. The frame of the camera is my canvas and the lights are my brushes. Light Painting Photography is a modern day revolution in the photographic world. I have dedicated my life to advancing this movement.

Artist that have influenced my work include Dean Chamberlain, James Turrell, Man Ray in his series “Space Writings”, Gjon Mili’s Strobe photography, Pablo Picasso’s light drawings with Gjon Mili during a brief meeting in 1949, and Eric Staller.