Speaker – David Gilliver: Light Painting & Miniature
David is joining us to deliver a two part presentation. One part will be on “Light Painting” and the other on “Little People”. He is very well known photographer, he has presented at the club in the past (before the Dreaded Covid), and is back by popular request of the membership.
“Glasgow-based artist David Gilliver specialises in long-exposure photography and macro photography to create surrealist images. David’s process is intricate and extensive, often requiring him to create in the dark of night whilst working with artificial light sources. David is frequently in his photographs, as an abstract form in the image’s backdrop, or a colour block frozen in time. David’s art is unique in its attention to detail, he designs and plans each image whilst instilling his process with an element of spontaneity.
David graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2001 with a degree in Fine Art Photography, and since then has worked as a professional photographer. David’s fantastical and colourful style has caught the eye of many clients, and he recently completed two collections of photographs for Aida Cruises. Adapting his Little People series, David created an original selection of photographs of miniature figurines in bizarre and wondrous settings
The Little People Series
The Little People series is one of David’s most famous collections to date. The hugely popular series has made its way to publications across the world, including New York Post, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Daily Mail. The surreal settings that David creates are injected with humour and energy as he places 2cm figures on edible objects such as sweets, sweetcorn and broccoli. The arbitrary nature of David’s photographs and his playful manipulation of scale, makes for images with a narrative that invites an open interpretation.
LightPainting
What makes these images so special is that they are all created using a very long exposure time and are created at night when it is very dark. The nature of the long exposure allows me time to walk into the shot while it is being photographed. I then move around portable light devices to create the colours and shapes that you see ‘frozen’ into each image. So long as I keep moving around during each long exposure and avoid illuminating myself, I remain completely invisible in the photograph. I teach regular group Light Painting Workshops to photography enthusiasts as well as in secondary schools”.
