Painting with the Camera

PAINTING WITH THE CAMERA AGNETA M. LINDH

WWW.AGNETAMLINDH.SE

Copyright © 2024 Agneta M. Lindh www.agnetamlindh.se Västerås Sweden Copying prohibited. This digital book is protected by the Copyright Act and may not be copied, stored or distributed digitally without permission from the copyright holder.

The publication is for public viewing on the online platform Issuu.

Photography and text: Agneta M. Lindh Cover image: My Nocturne, Agneta M. Lindh.

Photo of Agneta M. Lindh, page 1, by Sebastian Lagerström Lindh.

Back cover photo of Agneta M. Lindh, selfie.

PAINTING WITH THE CAMERA AGNETA M. LINDH

WWW.AGNETAMLINDH.SE

Joy

OCTOBER 20, 2021

CONTENT

1 THE CAMERA AS A BRUSH

2 WITH INTENTION

3 TESTING TESTING TESTING

4 ON THE MOVE

5 NEW PERSPECTIVES

6 GOING FORWARD

PAINTING WITH THE CAMERA

1 THE CAMERA AS A BRUSH 2015-2016

AGNETA M. LINDH

THE CAMERA AS A BRUSH

I photograph with a hand-held camera in motion during long shutter speeds. With the movements of a brush I paint directly on the sensor, and the picture is finished in the camera out on location.

My interest in painting and impressionism gave me the idea to paint with the camera, but it was chance and a dancing Christmas tree that quite surprisingly started my painting with the camera. At first I only used the technique ICM, Intentional Camera Movement. In 2017, I changed the camera housing and with new technology came new possibilities.

In 2018, I studied the history of photography. It challenged me technically and artistically.

Since then, art photography is as much a part of my creative expression as nature photos.

Agneta M. Lindh

1:1

AGNETA M. LINDH

01

THE CAMERA AS A BRUSH

It is at Fiskartorget in central Västerås that chance causes me to deliberately take my very first pictures with hand-held camera movement during long shutter speed. On a winter night, the ten-meter-high tree covered in Christmas lights comes to life, and the fireworks that fill the sky turn into strings of pearls when the focus doesn't have time. I focus my camera on light from the illuminated city hall tower, paint a heart and discover that I need to turn it upside down to get it upright. As I stand there waving my camera in the air, I have no idea what significance it will have for me and my development in photography.

It would take a year before I painted with city lights again, but I took the images and the moment with me.

course with Michigan State University via Coursera. The idea to make a photo look painted came to me during a photo shoot. The assignment "stop-motion", where fast shutter speed froze the blackbird's wing, made me reflect: what if I do the opposite? If I change the shutter speed a bit. Or why not a lot? So I did.

Impressionistic painters like Claude Monet, William Turner and James McNeill Whistler are among my favourites.

Among the postimpressionists, I favour Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne. From the Bauhaus movement, Lyonel Feiniger, and Ando Hiroshige's woodblock prints from the Edo period in Japan. They follow me on my way, camera in hand.

From 2016 to 2017, I did a photography specialisation

1:2

AGNETA M. LINDH

02

Dancing & Free Falling

NOVEMBER 25, 2015

if we shadows have offended

MAY 8, 2016

think but this, and all is mended

MAY 8, 2016

A wind or a wave, or a want?

Linking Worlds anthology No. 2

SEPTEMBER 18, 2016

Patronus

DECEMBER 3, 2016

PAINTING WITH THE CAMERA

2 WITH INTENTION

2017

AGNETA M. LINDH

WITH INTENTION

You can make an infinite number of movements with the camera. In turn, this means endless possibilities in image creation. In addition, the digital system camera offers more options than you need in addition to traditional choices.

When I develop my style, it is with a mixture of experience, camera knowledge, technique, desire to experiment and intuition. The ability to read light and see the possibility of an image from the palette of the surroundings is also a skill I use.

"Thinking about Whistler" January 1, 2017

2:1

I see the image already outside the camera's viewfinder. Light and colour are clicks to drag from one place to another within the image frame.

Everything doesn't work.

Sometimes, you get lucky and discover something by mistake.

Each picture series gives me new lessons.

AGNETA M. LINDH

10

En plein air Exhibition The Muses - Arts & Inquiry LI

JANUARY 1, 2017

Colours of Giverny Exhibition DUO 2019

SEPTEMBER 15, 2017

Somewhere Exhibition Light Catchers DUO 2019

OCTOBER 15, 2017

Lady Rose & A Touch of Gold Exhibition DUO 2019

OCTOBER 15, 2017

PAINTING WITH THE CAMERA

3 TESTING TESTING TESTING 2018

AGNETA M. LINDH

TESTING TESTING TESTING

Steichen's photograph Moonlight-Pond, a rubber print from 1904, received through its manual darkroom postprocessing several layers of paint, and he handpainted reeds in the foreground.

By imitating painted art (pictorialism), he wanted to introduce photography as an artistic discipline.

The conversation around pictorialism challenged me. Is that what I want - to imitate painted art? No, I want to find my way of painting with the camera.

In the spring of 2018, I studied the history of photography online with MoMA in New York. During the Seeing Through Photographs course, I got to know the painter and photographer Edward Steichen, later responsible for the photography department at MoMA and a photography pioneer.

3:1

2018 was a period of testing, testing, testing. I also tried out multiple exposures. They came to be the flavour of the summer but gave me ideas to develop when autumn offered night lights in the Eastern Harbour.

Do I save all the images?

Many, entire series. It allows me to follow my development and creative process.

AGNETA M. LINDH

16

Reaching

FEBRUARY 9, 2018

THE OCEAN

Three Trees

MARCH 17, 2018

Girl at the Ball & The Embrace Exhibition DUO 2019

OCTOBER 15, 2018

Blue Ribbons

OCTOBER 22, 2018

Low Light

OCTOBER 24, 2018

Sunburst

OCTOBER 24, 2018

PAINTING WITH THE CAMERA

4 ON THE MOVE

2019

AGNETA M. LINDH

THE BREAKTHROUGH

It takes time, and it may take time to develop your style.

With one, two, or even three techniques in one image, I made my breakthrough on April 27, 2019, in the first spring twilight in Råbyskogen.

In August, it is Light Night at Lake Mälaren, and at dusk, I stand on the new pier at the Eastern Quay. In front of me, I suddenly see points of light peeking out of the dark blue sky. I create the image, my version of Whistler's 'Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge.'

- This is happiness.

I didn't think about Whistler, even though he probably held my hand. The only thing I saw before me was the light I wanted to lure out of the night.

4:1

AGNETA M. LINDH

24

Catching Clouds & First Summer Twilight Exhibition DUO 2019

APRIL 27, 2019

Fireflower

AUGUST 21, 2019

My Nocturne

AUGUST 31, 2019

Art Deco Sunset

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

PAINTING WITH THE CAMERA

5 NEW PERSPECTIVES

2020

AGNETA M. LINDH

NEW PERSPECTIVES

Then came 2020. The pandemic swept us off our feet.

On March 21, I hadn't photographed for real since January 28. With a camera and a picnic basket - or was it just an apple - I went to my secret place where I knew I would be alone and where the rushing, roaring golden water would give me respite from the pandemic. Going there, I remembered my feelings from February 28, when I snuck out from behind the house into the woods with my eyes in the back of my neck and photographed the frozen leaves of last year's blue anemones in the fresh snow.

Not until June did the eagerness to work on my style return. In spring, I just wanted to photograph nature coming to life as it was. In the gap, there was time for reflection, time to look at how far I've come and tweak the camera's settings for new pictures.

5:1

AGNETA M. LINDH

30

Sunset in the Green World

JUNE 22, 2020

Back

AUGUSTI 3, 2020

Follow the Light

OCTOBER 17, 2020

Fairytale Forest

NOVEMBER 26, 2020

Red Little Cottage

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

The Grass is Singing

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

PAINTING WITH THE CAMERA

6 GOING FORWARD

2021 - 2022

AGNETA M. LINDH

GOING FORWARD

It's still about the light, about camera movements and moving the whole body.

Should you meet me out and about capturing the light, you might think I'm conducting an orchestra with the camera. The movements go high and low with a secret ingredient here and there.

2021 to 2022 is a time for continued development. The photos are getting fewer per photo tour, so I'm starting to learn what I want and how to do it. Even so, it is still a process where the increasingly ingrained movements give me the results I want.

6:1

In March 2020, a group of alumni from Michigan State University's Photography Specialisation via Coursera started the photo group Another Perspective. We met every month, and it was like being in the eye of the storm in the pandemic. In 2022, we started the weekly group The Journey Continues. Every week, a new theme and a new challenge.

Here is support and encouragement, and here is inspiration.

AGNETA M. LINDH

38

Ring Dance Exhibition TIME: the Concept of Time and Eight Artists

JANUARY 6, 2022

Selfportrait Digital art with ICM as a starting point

5 OKTOBER 2022

View from a Train

OCTOBER 11, 2022

Climbing Mountains

OCTOBER 11, 2022

GOING FORWARD

The digital art is unique and can only come from me, out of my process. Every layer and item I add is from my photographs.

The process is paramount.

Once you have the foundation, you continue frame by frame.

In 2023, I celebrated fifty years behind the camera. I was only six when I inherited my father's old camera, a Ferrania Rondine, in 1972. It gave me a lifelong interest and immense joy.

For me, it is fun and vital to learn new things. I test out new technical possibilities - some I discard, some stick.

In the autumn of 2022 my interest in Japanese wood block prints from the Edo period took me to digital art with a nod to Ando Hiroshige.

With the help of image processing in Photoshop, I make my ICM images into the style Hiroshige stood for, mostly keeping my own colour palette intact. I then build the image layer by layer.

7:1

When it comes to creating pictures, I know for sure when I hear the shutter on the camera, I feel my best, learn the most, and am at most in the moment.

AGNETA M. LINDH

43

Travelling in My Mind Digital art with ICM as a starting point

OCTOBER 24, 2022

‘It takes time and may take time to develop your style.

You'll know when you find your Why.’ Agneta M. Lindh

WWW.AGNETAMLINDH.SE