Creative - NOMINEE: Arvids Baranovs

Winter in the Northern hemisphere is associated not only with cold, but also with darkness that dominates the half of the year. And with the lack of sunshine come the psychological struggles such as the so-called winter depression because the human body is not adapted to this kind of extreme lack of Vitamin D. Being an aerial photographer and filmmaker who is dependant on light I realised that I had to do something about it or otherwise the inability to use my skills for such a long time would drive me mad. So I started developing my project called «Darkness/Light» which deals with the theme of surviving the darkness by creating artificial source of light. I use lights attached to drones and using techniques of long exposure and light painting create otherworldy photographic compositions where I can freely choose what to highlight and what to hide behind the curtain of darkness. Works can be divided in two sub-categories - 1) light painting where lines created by the drone give a sort-of Sci-Fi feeling to otherwise natural landscape; 2) using the light to expose different parts of a scene while hiding others thus treating the landscape as a "stage".

About author:
Since a young age Arvids has worked through various digital media from web design to graphic design and in recent years has settled with filmmaking as his main occupation. Photography has been a hobby-turned-art for Arvids ever since he got a film camera 20 years ago. Passion about nature, sustainable travel and adventures is what shapes his body of work. With the advent of various online photography platforms and the possibility to reach wider audiences, Arvids decided to develop his photography more deliberately. During the dark season Arvids started experimenting with light painting and night sky photography as to keep his creative mind occupied. He is based in Latvia, but works Worldwide.