This article by Michael Behlen was originally published in Edition 3 of Analog Forever Magazine, Winter 2020.

Photographers from time immemorial have often described their art as painting with light. But what if you could actually use light the way painters use their materials? Would you be able to create imagery that transcends traditional photography? Would it incorporate metaphorical brushstrokes and delicate gradients, and shades of color that would display your process in motion? Italian photographer Felicita Russo’s series Imaginary Landscape is the ultimate rule-breaking answer to these questions. Her brilliant instant film-based creations of extraterrestrial worlds and breathtaking future landscapes bridge the gap between traditional painting, contemporary art, and science fiction. The connection between these practices, traditionally only combined in movies and book covers is embraced by her ability to create her genre-defining light paintings that move the paradigm of where the intersection of technical science and art aligns with one another.

Isaac Asimov told us that “It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.” Russo’s photographic work embraces and echoes these important sentiments from a sci-fi icon by completely disregarding the contemporary understanding of photography and pushing to change the accepted boundaries of our art. While her work is technically photography, it would be more accurately described as a symphony of light applied by a master conductor of scientific research and application. Her analog Photoshop like process includes applying a color-changing LED flashlight with black fiber optics via numbered stencils to Polaroid emulsion. Doing this over multiple exposures in pure darkness allows for her subjects to be only limited by the confines of her creativity and imagination.

Taking inspiration from her background as an atmospheric physics researcher, Russo has been able to apply the scientific method to fully understand and use the Polaroid medium to its full potential. She spent hours experimenting and documenting how each LED color reacted and interacted with one another when applied to the delicate emulsion of instant film. But why choose instant film as your sole medium for creating such detailed and colorful works of light painted art? It’s obvious that other mediums would have been a more stable and ideal choice to choose if anyone else would embark on such a mission. Russo shared with us that, “I thought that the best way of doing light painting without having the temptation to adjust the picture in post-processing would be analog photography. I knew what I was doing was something deeply experimental and I simply could not wait to see what I had produced. In addition, I knew that Polaroid would pose a big challenge and I liked that.”

Russo’s series Imaginary Landscape wasn’t the first time she challenged herself to combine science and art. Growing up, she always considered herself an unusual person, and as she puts it “not necessarily in a good way.” Being a nerd who was into science fiction and art, she struggled to fit in at high school. She always dreamt of escaping her environment for a far off place as soon as she graduated. Originally wanting to study art during this time, her parents convinced her to study a subject that would lead to more lucrative career possibilities. It was due to this that in 1986 she visited the astronomy observatory in Naples, Italy for the first time. She immediately fell in love with the worlds just beyond our reach while suddenly realizing she could pursue her love for both science and art by pursuing astrophotography.

After Russo’s epiphany, she started going out with the astronomy club, not with a telescope like everyone else, but with her camera and lenses. She told us that, “When you spend hours waiting for the sky to clear up after a couple of hours drive you develop a unique sense of love and respect for nature.” It was through these evening excursions that she also learned the science behind analog photography, and excitedly developed and printed her nighttime long exposures of stars painting their movements on her film. During this time she also grew fascinated with experimentation within her art. She diligently produced work with everything she could get her hands on, including rayograms and brushing developer on exposed paper. She never thought of herself as an artist, and definitely didn’t think people would be interested in viewing her work. This didn’t matter to her though, she simply created the things that she enjoyed seeing from her imagination.

This attitude changed when Russo completed her physics Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. It was here that, with a steady paycheck to pay for artistic supplies, she could finally self-actualize the notion that, as a scientist, you don’t just “follow the rules’’ but instead imagine new ways of applying existing knowledge to discover new foundations of truth. With this undeniable revelation, she began to embark on understanding and applying the wrongly promoted distinction between science and art and instead infused them together. “To tell the truth, I never understood this apparent dichotomy between science and art that people usually see, as to me they are two faces of the same process: the need for humans to create, to find new ways of looking at things and new connections.”

However, as always, Russo has never really fit in. When she originally embarked on pursuing light painting photography she soon realized that there was a tendency in the light painting community, mostly composed of digital photographers, to have very strict rules on what can be considered light painting or not. Almost every picture posted in their online communities was accompanied by the phrase “straight out of camera” or “no photoshop, only light.” This did not make sense to her, “Why would I use a digital instrument to take a picture that I would then refuse to post-process when I could simply use an instant camera, with whose results you could never intervene with?” So against the grain, Russo developed her own one of a kind light painting technique that would cause any photographer, digital or otherwise, to question: is this even photography? My answer is a resounding yes, which is accompanied by a standing ovation. And to all those who would question this: just how many rules have you broken recently? With a little dedication and a whole lot of imagination, it just may lead you to your best work yet.
Connect with Felicita Russo on her Website and on Instagram!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Behlen is an instant film addict and the founder and publisher of Analog Forever Magazine. For the last six years, Behlen has become an obsessive community organizer in the film photography world, including launching the independent publishing projects PRYME Magazine and PRYME Editions, two enterprises dedicated to the art of instant film. Through these endeavors, he has featured and published 200+ artists from around the globe via his print and online publications.

He has self-published two Polaroid photobooks -“Searching for Stillness, Vol. 1” and “I Was a Pioneer,” literally a boxed set of his instant film work. His latest book, Searching for Stillness Vol II was published in 2020 by Static Age. He has been published, been interviewed, and been reviewed in a quantity of magazines and online publications, from F-Stop and Blur Magazine to the Analog Talk Podcast. He loves the magic sensuality of instant film: its saturated, surreal colors; the unpredictability of the medium; it’s addictive qualities as you watch it develop. He spends his time shooting instant film and backpacking in the California wilderness, usually a combination of the two.

Connect with Michael Behlen on his Website and on Instagram!

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