Jean-Marc Spaans

Jean-Marc Spaans (1967, The Netherlands) is an artist who deals with photography and light. Spaans captures the movement of light in photography without revealing the light source. These traces of often gaudily-colored light appear as if they were part of the architecture, or like objects anchored in space. This being so, the kind of environment in which he produces his work is a major consideration. Some photos in Spaans' oeuvre resemble geometrical still lifes, while others are much more redolent of dynamic, organic life. It is for this reason that Spaans' way of working has sometimes been described as 'painting with light'. It is by moving a neon light in front of an open-shuttered camera that Spaans obtains this quite special result. It allows him to let spatial, architectural shapes and figures emerge, seemingly effortlessly.