Chicago is my Canvas

Coming from a small town in Italy, one of the most fascinating things about Chicago are its lights. Originated from buildings, cars, trains, planes, streets, and even boats in the middle of the lake, these always-on lights reflect the energetic nature of a bustling city like Chicago. Using long exposures, I am able to capture the movement of these lights in just one frame. As the light source moves along the frame, the camera clearly registers its movements and produces a trail that, as I like to think about it, effectively moves through time. When you actively control the movement of these lights the picture becomes a “light painting”, as the photographer uses a flashlight almost like a brush, but on an invisible canvas. With this project I wanted to make a collection of landscapes of various Chicago landmarks, adding to each a light painting that’s somehow related to the scene, either visually or contextually. The heavy contrast between the dark background and the bright sketches almost resembles the line of a white marker, which looks unnatural but is 100% made with real light.