julien breton creates luminous calligraphy through light-painted performances

julien breton creates luminous calligraphy through light-painted performances 
(above) ‘le sens’ — jodpur, india
all calligraphy by julien breton aka kaalam/ all photography by david gallard

nantes-based artist julien breton presents the creations culminating from three years of work, which explore the gestures and movements of calligraphy though light and photography. breton forms each composition using hand-held illumination and long-exposure photographic techniques, capturing an ephemeral moment surrounded by both natural and urban landscapes.

the two different styles of writing — a latin-based alphabet and arabic calligraphy — are written into the air with light, carefully and without any visual guidelines. a camera set with a long-exposure time records the moving lengths of light, resulting in an image showing dynamic floating light forms that maintain a direct relationship with the surroundings. various tones of ‘ink’ is achieved by the application of pigmented gelatin, applied directly to the lamps. take a look at the video documentary from al jazeera above to see how its done. 

‘la beauté- the beauty’, tetouan, morocco, 2015

‘dead’s place’, new york, USA, 2012

‘compassion’, issé, france, 2014

‘la lumière – the light’, jodpur, india, 2012

‘pensée – think’, saint-laurent sur sèvres, france, 2014

‘fraternité – brotherhood’, jodpur, india, 2012

‘under the city’, nantes, france, 2012

‘art’, nagaur, india, 2012