Alina Wilczynski 

Adjunct Professor of Photography SUNY Farmingdale, Multi-Media Artist and Graphic Designer 

After 25+ years working in the realm of graphic arts and photography — as a co-founding partner in a small creative agency, an exhibiting fine artist, and Adjunct Professor of Photography — in 2017, Wilczynski started on an unexpected journey of experimentation with Light Painting. 

With advances in LED, black light and fiber optic lighting, projection mapping, the study of bioluminescence, data visualization, and computational videography, she is on a mission to paint the world in light, color, and movement...and coax the artistry of the human spirit within all of us to come out and play. 

Often taught in beginner photo classes, as Wilczynski had first learned about it in college, the phenomenon of Light Painting Photography was discovered by chance in the late 1880’s by Étienne-Jules Marey and Georges Demeny, who experimented with multiple and long-exposure photography to advance their study of human physiology. Taken in complete darkness, any movement or ‘painting’ of light with flashlights or other light tools while the camera shutter is open gets recorded in one shot. 

"There is nothing quite as thrilling as telling an audience that their minds are about to be blown, then watching them follow seemingly unremarkable instructions to walk around in the dark moving lights around, and then watching their reactions to the wildly beautiful, intricate and in-the-moment one-of-a- kind works of art that they just created. Beyond thrilling is seeing light bulbs turning on above their heads and their expressions of wonderment when I tell them they can do this with any camera, even their cellphones. They feel like I am letting them in on a magical secret when really the magical secret is that their imagination from deep inside has been unleashed."