Pablo Picasso created a series of light drawings in 1949 by using a torch and long camera exposures in a dark room. He was inspired by photos of ice skaters with lights on their skates. Picasso's images were made by leaving the camera shutter open as he moved a light source, capturing light streaks. The document also discusses imitating Picasso's technique by taking photos with long exposures and editing them digitally to emphasize the light streaks.

1. Picasso Light Work
Stephen Heywood

2. Pablo Picasso did a series of
light drawings in 1949 using
long shutter speeds.
Picasso’s light drawings
were done with a fine torch
and a camera at a long
exposure time. The room
would have been very dark
to allow the light to appear
so well on camera. Picasso
was inspired by Gjon Mili
who had previously taken
photos of ice skaters with
lights attacked to their
skates. Picasso’s image was
taken by leaving the
shutters open, which
enabled him to capture the
light streaks.

3. This image above is attack to imitate Picasso’s light work. It’s an abstract image that was edited
on Photoshop to sharpen the image. I altered the exposure and contrast to define the image.

4. This image is another imitation of Picasso’s light work. Again I used Photoshop to edit the image
to allow the light streaks to look fluid. I took both images on a shutter speed of 13 seconds to
allow enough light to come through the lens.