Damian VanCamp ’00 | Connectivity Laid the Groundwork

Damian VanCamp ’00 Lighting Designer

CONNECTIVITY LAID THE GROUNDWORK

By Sarah Woods, Director of Communications

“I fell into lighting design by accident. Actually, it came through drumming in a round-about way,” explained Damian VanCamp ’00.

Damian started playing the drums at AllenStevenson in the Sixth Grade. Initially, he was a cello player but learned that a cool classmate of his, Robbie Krauss ’00, was taking drum lessons at school.

“I decided to make the switch from cello to drums, and before you know it, a few Allen- Stevenson friends (Sam Moss ’00, Jesse Rhodes ’00, and Benji Sarlin ’00) and I had started a band. I continued to play throughout high school, and a core group of us carried on playing afterward. During and after high school, other groups I played with performed all over the city and even sat in offices where Grammys hung on the wall as we pitched our songs. Nothing panned out, but it was a wonderful experience,” said Damian.

Traveling all over the city to gigs, Damian often had to lug his own drums. “I was that guy that people love to hate on the subway.”

He never got to hang out with the fans who came to support his shows because he had to pack up his equipment immediately after each performance. On one occasion, he explained, “We landed a more upscale show for which I didn’t have to bring my own drums. Following our performance, I started to chat to a young lady in the audience who said she was in a program for architectural lighting design, something I’d never heard of. The rest is history.”

“I went to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) for photography after high school. The idea of a career in architectural lighting design would allow me to combine numerous passions.”

“I always knew I wanted to be an artist, and light had always been of interest to me. I used to look out my window, noticing the effects of light on the street and how it reflected off objects. Architecture and architectural elements have also inspired me.”

“I’d like to have gone into architecture, but math and I were never friends. Just ask my teachers at Allen-Stevenson. The funny thing is, math is a part of everything I do now.”

Left to right: Damian VanCamp, Jessie Rhodes, Sam Moss, Benji Sarlin (ca. 1997)

Philadelphia Holocaust Memorial Plaza, Philadelphia, PA. Lighting by Tillett Lighting Design Associates. Photo courtesy of Alexis Nollett Blue Kid live at Le Poisson Rouge, CMJ Music Festival, 2011

Damian talked about his appreciation for his AllenStevenson education and how “complex-systems” thinking was embedded throughout the curriculum. “What we learned in history class was mirrored in English and art class; math was incorporated into science class and music. We were taught to think holistically, to see how things were connected, and that’s how life works. Having an early understanding of that gives you a leg up. That part of my education set me up very well.”

Damian described how valuable these interconnected problem-solving skills were on a recent, exciting lighting design project. As part of the team designing the lighting for the Fotografiska building in New York City, Damian and the team had the challenge of lighting the façade of this historic, landmark-protected building clad in solid granite and limestone. Through research, the team figured out that the wooden window frames were one of the few things that could be altered, so, without actually damaging them, they devised a solution in which they mounted the lighting to a custom system that attached to the frames and fed the wiring for the lighting fixtures through the grouting between the limestone.

Damian likes that he’s left his stamp all over the city and is fortunate to have worked with some phenomenal people, and not just in New York.

As for the future, he says, “I hope to keep flexing my creative muscles. I still see photography in the mix, and maybe some sculpture, too. When I was at RISD I took a cold working glass class that took me back to my time at Allen-Stevenson when Mr. Ripple, the science teacher, had us make our own pipettes. We used flint glass tubes, which we scored and held over bunsen burners to bend them.

“And of course, there’s the music. I’m ready to record some tracks with my roommate. I sat down at my drums again the other day. I’m a little rusty, to say the least, and I thought to myself, I’ve got to fix this; what would Mr. Schrade say!?”