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Photography, Text and Video by Jonathan Tang, Copyright 2017
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PAPER AND LIGHT
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“How do you do that?” I asked, watching a paper crane come to life in my friend’s hands.
“Follow me.” She handed me a crisp square of delicate origami paper. “Start with a valley fold – inwards – and then you want to do another. Okay, now take that, pull it, and squish, just like this.” Whereas her fingers deftly flattened and creased the paper, mine fumbled around, crushing delicate folds with reckless abandon. My first crane was anything but beautiful, but it captivated me nonetheless – if I could make a bird out of paper, what else could I do?
When I was younger I folded many origami creations – from cranes to flapping birds, balloons to snack dishes, and single-unit to modular. While my folding slowed down by high school, it never ceased to charm me. As such, when I was assigned to photograph still life images featuring geometry, the first thing to come to mind was origami. After all, every fold of origami paper forms a new geometric shape.
When I finally finished folding some cranes and prepared for my shoot, however, I realized I didn’t have a theme in mind, other than “origami.” So, I started testing the lighting. After fiddling around with a clamp light for an hour, none of the results seemed particularly exciting to me. I decided to try taking long exposures with dim lighting, namely an LED strip I had laying around.
The moment the LEDs flashed on, I knew I had what I wanted. The inclusion of so many light sources produced complex, dramatic shadows behind each paper crane. Not only that, but I could fill in the shadows flexibly using the same light. I grabbed my “helping hands,” a stand with alligator clips and a magnifying glass usually used for soldering, so I could stabilize the strip, when I noticed something unique. The LEDs, with their offset colors, were shining through the magnifying glass and producing globular shapes. Not only that, but since their colors are offset, they were being split, producing distinct red, green, and blue bands. I started experimenting with the magnifying glass and its effects on the light, capturing the results with long exposures, some up to 40 seconds. The results were great. Using a magnifying glass and an LED strip, I could project color-outlined shapes onto surfaces around my origami critters, showcasing them with their own Technicolor spotlights. As I experimented more, my still life series produced itself.
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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/johnathan-tang-exposure-emotion/