Photography, Text and Video by Jonathan Tang, Copyright 2017
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LIGHT AND PAPER
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Since I was young, I have loved light. I loved looking at the Sun, watching fireworks, and playing with lasers. In elementary school, I brought multiple magnifying glasses to school to burn wood chips and paper with my friends. In middle school, I played with lasers, magnifying glasses, and other glass objects to see which was the shiniest under light. In high school, I learned about optics and set up experiments with lasers both in class and out of class. In college, I learned how to capture light and show the things I see to others.
Following a previous project pairing origami and light, Paper and Light, I decided to continue and produce another set of images, Light and Paper. Like the last set of images, I decided to use an LED light strip for lighting, but unlike the last set, I decided to be more experimental in my methods and styles. Instead of fixing my lighting in one setup, I decided to create a more flexible lighting rig, featuring a cardboard box, a microphone stand, a roll of paper, and many twist ties. That allowed me to experiment with the lighting in free hand, before fixing it with the rig. Additionally, I decided to make greater use of different materials. This set features one image that is a bit different from the others, featuring a newspaper, glasses, and a pen. It also features textured construction paper, more textured origami, and some of the equipment used to create the lighting (namely, the helping-hands on which the magnifying glass is mounted is present in some images). Finally, Light and Paper uses many more sources of light, as well as many methods of modifying it. All images use light produced with an LED strip, but some use light passed through a glass of water, through a sheet of origami paper, or through a magnifying glass. Some even include light from a candle, passed through the glass of water and focused on a subject. Some were even produced under daylight conditions, with extra light entering through the background. All the images, however, were designed with the intention of experimenting with light and paper, and creating vivid scenes using nothing but the two.
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About The Author: Jonathan Tang is a senior enrolled in the College of the University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2017. Johnathan plans to enroll in medical school once he graduates. To see additional articles by Jonathan Tang, go here: https://tonywardstudio.com/blog/jonathan-tang-paper-light/