Curatorialist

“Lighting is everything.” My Mom taught me that at an early age. It wasn’t an art lesson, it was a beauty lesson. But it was an art lesson, too. After all, how you light your subject determines a lot.

Then, when I got into drawing, my Dad sat me down with his long-time friend, Lee Chapman. At the time, Lee lived in a beautiful sprawling house with a pool, up in Laurel Canyon. He was an ad guy, but his true calling was fine art. We had his paintings in our house and I had already heard many stories about his drawing and illustration skills before I had met with him that day. It was intimidating as hell. “So, you like to draw?” I remember him asking me. “Let me show you something.” He proceeded to take out a piece of paper and a pencil and drew a perfect circle. He explained lighting to me through the illustration of a sphere. He explained the light source and how the shadow was created opposite it. He scribbled a quick shadow, then evened it out with his thumb. He showed me the highlight, the shadow created on the surface by the object and just when I thought it was looking good and done he showed me one more thing: bounce light. The surface reflects back light onto the the object and creates a rim of light right on the edge. He said, “Really look at any object and you will see it. Most people don’t observe that, but it’s there.” He taught me that what you’re drawing isn’t the object, it’s the light, or lack of light. Later, Lee took off for Mexico and never came back. He’s painting and making children’s books and living the dream. But that lesson was one of the most memorable experiences of my life, as it changed the way I see the world. I think about that day almost every time I draw, or light a subject.

Then, recently, I stumbled across this video of a fairly well-known photography instructor, Dean Collins. It’s an old piece of film, but it captures in more technical terms these notions of light and how it applies to photography. It’s simple, but it’s also incredibly essential. A nice reminder of one of the most important lessons in all of art.