Colour photography is an area I have always wanted to explore, the use of colour (or the lack of it) can really define an image and be a great tool in creating beautiful, eye catching and exciting photographs. I feel like the world is becoming less colourful and more dull with most modern buildings being painted with colours such as dark greys and whites. Nowadays, cars too, are either coloured in white, back, grey and silver also logos are losing their colour and signage is becoming more dull. It does not help that the sky is usually overcast and grey which can dampen your mood.

I am not the only one who notices this with a study finding that three out of four manufactured cars are painted in monochrome and the most popular carpet colour is grey. Researchers from the science museum group also analysed thousands of photographs and found that in the 1800s monochrome colours only represented around 15% of all the items in the photographs, but nowadays that number has increased to around 60% of items being either black, white or grey (Aleksandra Pękala, April 2024).

To combat this, I want to show the importance of colour by creating colourful and vibrant photographs. A fun and effective area of this is painting with light because it has the potential to be creative and illustrative. The artists I want to analyse, both use light painting in their work as well as other photographic techniques such as long exposure and bracketing. Will Lakeman and Benoit Paillé, both create interesting and beautiful dream like images through the use of colour photography, night photography and light painting. I want to respond to their style of work by capturing and trying to recreate the dream like effect their images have as well as the way they use colour to help compliment their work.

References to be added to the bottom of essay: Pękala, A. (2024). Is the World Turning Gray? Why Colorful Objects Are on the Decline. [Blog] available at: https://medium.com/@aleksandrapekala/is-the-world-turning-gray-why-colorful-objects-are-on-the-decline-e799e15ccdc5 [Accessed 15 Jan. 2025]