Playing with Light: Langara instructor Colin Mills displays his photography

The Langara Bookstore is presenting the art exhibit Studies of Light in Motion by instructor Colin Mills until April 9.

Mills first picked up a camera eight years ago to help his class learn through visual aids. He ended up getting into abstract expressionism afterward. It has taken him about seven years to develop the technique he uses. The work is done with only a camera and Photoshop, but Mills doesn’t crop his photos. Instead, he works with colour balance to draw out the colours in his art.

“With abstract expressionism, really the idea is that it’s non-representational, I’m not representing something. It’s your job as the viewer. I don’t want to influence you,” said Mills.

A good turnout 

Mark Adams, director of ancillary services at Langara said, “there’s been a fair amount of traffic that’s come through. The event that we had last week was well attended.”

Mills doesn’t show a lot of his earlier work, as he was unhappy with it. But one of his first pieces that he was satisfied with is titled Yellow #4.  The subject matter is taken from the Honda Celebration of Light fireworks display.

All the pieces are printed on sheets of aluminum so they don’t need to be framed.

“If your eye is dancing across the picture trying to find resolution, places where lines cross, places where focus comes into or out of focus, it’s the ability of that image to keep your eye moving that I see as one of the primary characteristics that I’m looking for,” said Mills.

Reported by Lukasz Jonca