Graffiti artist uses light, rather than spray paint, to create images

Blackleaf

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British photographer Michael Bosanko doesn't use spray cans to graffiti British landmarks - he uses light.

Bosanko uses long exposure shots and different coloured torches to 'draw with light' in the night-time shots.

He visited London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle and Edinburgh in one weekend to take the photos for a TalkTalk advertising campaign.

Using this method, he creates light flowers, light people, light buildings, light animals and light dinosaurs in front of Britain's great landmarks, such as the Houses of Parliament, the Angel of the North, the London Eye and the modern Bullring building in Birmingham, Britain's second-biggest city. He also made light flowers at Kew Gardens, London.

The stunning light graffiti images brightening up Britain's landmarks

By Daily Mail Reporter
12th August 2009
Daily Mail

A photographer swapped spray cans for torches to graffiti British landmarks in a set of stunning images released today.

Michael Bosanko used long exposure shots and different coloured torches to 'draw with light' in the night-time shots.

He visited London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle and Edinburgh in one weekend to take the photos for a TalkTalk advertising campaign.

London skyline: Michael Bosanko marks out the London Eye, Gherkin, Tower Bridge, Nelson's Column and House of Parliament using just torches and a long exposure

Fiery: The Angel of the North appears to burst into flames

The 'light graffiti' created figures, flames, dinosaurs and flowers to brighten up attractions including the Houses of Parliament, the Angel of the North and the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

He has created a series of stunning photographs of light graffiti in cities across Britain using light and digital camera effects.

The 39-year-old has developed the relatively unknown technique over the last five years. Images are created in a similar way that sparklers can draw shapes on Bonfire night.

'Earlier this year he said: 'I use my torches like an artist would use a paint brush.

'I employ an exposure that lasts from ten seconds to one hour and then try to let my art manage to create what I had imagined.



Illuminating: Bosanko creates a man walking his dog along the Thames and a dinosaur outside the Natural History Museum in London

'What I feel I am trying to convey is a sense of an aesthetically pleasing shape that clearly does not belong in that particular place or area.'

Bosanko, who is based in Cardiff, covers the lens of an average household torches in coloured acetate paper which allows him to bring different shades of the spectrum to his work.


And he said that he gets the best results on a shoot depending on the amount of ambient light that available.

'If I am working in an urban environment like a city then there is lots of ambient light that means I have to work quickly,' he said.

'Some people have asked if I have ever used photo-shop on my work and I have to tell them that it is simply created with a torch, a camera and the canvas of the night.'




A skateboarder appears to do some tricks on the South Bank in London

Floral art: Brilliant and bright flowers spring up in the Botanical Gardens at Kew

A magical bull appears outside the Bullring mall in Birmingham

Bosanko said he got the inspiration for creating light graffiti while on holiday in Greece about five years ago.

'I was taking a picture of a very bright moon one evening in Greece when I noticed a swirling effect because the exposure had been left too long,' he said.

'I then realised the beginning of my work in light art and have continued ever since.'

Among the sites he visited with TalkTalk were the Bullring in Birmingham, the O2, where he created Michael Jackson moonwalking, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Natural History Museum and the Southbank in London.

Ghostly performers on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh

Michael Jackson's moonwalk is created outside the O2 Arena in London using just torches and a long exposure

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