About this picture

Kim: Windy nights in the sand dunes are a common experience. After all, the wind is the main architect of this beautiful landscape, so complaining about it would seem like nonsense. It does add challenges to our process as you can imagine, such as the whistling noise, making communication much harder or stability and precision of execution reduced because of the wind pushing against us. That means a lower rate of success for each night we go out. But who likes it when things are too easy anyway?

Eric: These are some of the most satisfying moments for me. I enjoy hard work and difficult conditions, and this stands at the top of this category. Working in sand dunes is mostly about physical effort for my part: running back and forth from Kim to the camera without leaving any footprints. That means making gigantic loops outside of the lens framing. I particularly enjoy when I’m running uphill to reach Kim right before creating these long exposure images.

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About the Night Reflection Eleven series

This series is the result of a creative process that has been evolving over the past 8 years. Crafting light by hand to create imagery that magnifies reality in a single exposure is at the core of our projects. These outdoor tube light-painting creations testify to the importance of two things that inspire my photography journey: a love for light-painting as an artistic expression and a love for landscapes that evoke the vastness, mystery, and beauty of nature. Each image is the result of a long exposure during which Kim, a contemporary dancer, and my creative partner, stays still while I move the light behind her. Combining in a singular way light-painting and landscape photography, the process looks like a performance of dancing light and human stillness in the silence of the night.

This chapter testifies to our love of sand dunes. Being there at night is indeed a unique experience to live. Majestic and mysterious, vast and maybe hostile at first glance, they give us a unique perspective, a sense of power and smallness at the same time. The feeling of being alone is amplified by the fact that we are surrounded by an infinity of sand in every direction. Although it can be intimidating, being in these sand territories ignites some sense of euphoria, adventure, and freedom within us. Every desert can become a giant sandbox to explore and express our creativity.  For us, the desert is one of those locations where we feel the need to go back. Sort of anchor points allowing us to see the progression we made over the years.

Acting as a purpose to travel, our projects keep us learning and moving forward. Since 2015, our journey through outdoor tube light-painting has been giving us the opportunity to push our limits and stay outdoors for long hours through the cold, the wind, the mosquitoes, and other unpredictable challenges to experience, create, and capture unique moments of magic after sunset, seeking to inspire others to go explore and play with lights. Just as every trace of light made by hand is unique and impossible to replicate, so is every night sky we capture. As we shape traces of light and partially reveal the beauty of our environment, we try to create a slightly altered perspective of reality where reflection is implied.