ABOUT

I am a Light Painter. I facilitate mind-blowing experiences with an image-making technique that is having its creative renaissance.

I use Light Painting photography — together with various lighting technologies and real-time computational video — as a teaching tool and a bridge to give participants spontaneous experiences that reveal to them the essence of things. From meditation to music interpretation, brand culture to basketball, natural sciences and physics to the world’s largest Tesla coil.

My clients are pioneering businesses and brands, cultural institutions and schools wishing to engage a captive audience in new ways with unforgettable experiences. Not just presentations, but experiences that are revelatory and inclusive of everyone — all ages and abilities — as participants, creators and active learners.

I partner with my clients to design the experiences they want for their audiences and stakeholders. Events can take shape as short demos, internal team-building or brand-ideation workshops, multi-day professional development intensives, public events in open spaces, product launches, concerts or festivals. Research collaborations, including movement studies using the behavior of light, color and sound can aid in scientific observation and data visualization.

The fun and function of the work doesn’t end with the event itself. Evergreen media can be used for video banners, media sharing, community press releases and industry news. Behind-the-scenes video docs that compliment the project production, provide priceless memories for everyone involved and can be shown at reveal parties, gallery exhibits, large-scale video boards, social sharing and more.

I

t seems pre-destined that I would use light as my medium and the darkness as my canvas. Born a first generation Polish American, my surname Wilczynski derives from the word wilk meaning “wolf”. And the Slavic and Greek origins for Alina mean “light.”

My fantasy-adventure namesake Alina, in the novel and Netflix series Shadow and Bone, comes to realize she possesses a superpower, the ability to summon light! My superpower, if I were to call one, seems to be summoning the light from others.

It started with a question, a wish of sorts. How can I use art to help others feel the energy, the living history and the cultural significance of historical places, people and things in order to encourage community-driven efforts to save them?

Light Painting came to mind and in the moment I started drafting ideas, after nearly 30 years since first learning the technique in college, I was struck by the realization that literally everything about Light Painting has changed! And mainly in just the past few years with the advent of new and newly accessible sources of light and light-sensitive technology that have made what’s possible with the technique literally open to infinity.

In the several years since my earliest experiments, this work has led to projects with movements artists, athletes, motorsport drivers, scientists and business owners. Who all quickly realize the same thing within the creative process. There is a essence to what they do that no one else has been able express with them in this way before… this deeply, with the level of meaning, purpose, insight and emotional connection that we are able to generate together with this medium.

Klaus Schnitzer, my college Photography Professor was witness to my countless hours in the darkroom and to blame for my fascination with photographing shiny things that go very fast… and of course Light Painting…