Hey Wicked Hunters,
Welcome back to The Art of Photography Podcast. This week we have Eric Pare and Kim Henry, who revolutionise light painting and portrait photography.
Photographer Eric Paré and contemporary dancer Kim Henry have built a lifestyle combining passions for performing art, photography, travel and light painting.
Exploring the world with their light-painting tubes, they create unique imagery mixing light-painting and landscape photography in magnificent locations, sharing every single tip about their techniques along the way. When they are not on the road, you can find them performing studio photography in Montreal where they capture dance using 176 cameras on a full 360° system.
Mixing studio and outdoor photography allow them to continue pushing their limits while keeping the balance between those two complementary aspects of their art. Their work has been featured on CNN, MTV, BBC and TEDx, and they have worked on large-scale campaigns with Audi, Apple, Adobe, HP, ESPN, Intel, Canon and Microsoft. Some recent projects brought them and their team to Coachella, Panorama, CES, SXSW, Xposure and the Olympic Games.
You can learn more about both Eric Pare and Kim Henry on:
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Transcription:
Kim Henry 0:00
And it was it was not a big success. But when we saw those big tools, those big plastic tubes are like, Oh, I think there’s something there.
Eric Pare 0:08
So on that night, where we were like, oh, there’s something so cool to play with. We’re like, what do we do with this? Are we going to keep it as a secret, or we’re going to reveal it. And now 10s of 1000s of people are doing this.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 0:24
Hey Wicked Hunters. Welcome back to The Art of Photography podcast, where we share artists journey and share how photography given us hope, purpose and happiness. And today, we have someone who is an innovator in the photography industry, someone who actually I followed a long, long time ago. It’s such a privilege to have them here today, and being able to hear the story behind not only their photography, but also the innovation behind it, because trust me, it will blow your way. Blow your mind away. So today we have Eric and Kim. How are you guys doing?
Eric Pare 1:06
Hi. So good to be with you today. Tonight for us in mourning for you. We’ll start right away. I had a question for you. Okay.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 1:17
Oh, right away. I love this. This is great. I thought I was supposed to be the one asking question.
Eric Pare 1:23
Do you speak? You speak Indonesian, right? Yeah, I do. I know one word. Okay. And I have no idea how to pronounce it. But I want to tell that word to Kim. Because this is one comment that always come from Indonesian fans. The right to Kim. So if you saw that, Karen
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 1:44
Kerim gramme, what does that mean? Yeah, it’s actually mean awesome. Oh. Yeah. It’s like, oh, grand is like, oh, it’s like, awesome. Yeah. Yeah, that’s, I mean, you guys are doing really awesome stuff. 100%. You know, when I first come across your work, one of the thing that really intrigued me is just the way you do slide and how you like painted right behind the portrait behind your subject. And I thought it was something that I had never seen before. So when I first saw that right away, I was like, wow, like, that’s incredible. And I have I have made a few attempts to buy the tube and everything but I’ve never followed through with with it. So you know, now that I’ve gone on a podcast with you, maybe that’s my incentive to actually make that happen. But, look, it’s so incredible to see how both of you work together, you know, as a as a photographer, and dance and before we can move forward with, you know, all the different question. Tell us a little bit about how did it all get started? You know, how did it all get started for you, Eric as photographer and how it kind of transpires with Kim and you know, half of two different work of art meet together.
Eric Pare 3:14
Okay, so I think you already know that’s the reference so many photographers, I was travelling with a point and shoot camera. You heard you heard that before? Right?
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 3:25
Yeah,
Eric Pare 3:28
I got super lucky because as I was very interested into photography, I wanted to become professional. But where do you start? Like if you have no one? Like no, none of your friends? And that it doing this as a profession as a business? Or how do you start and I was super interested about photography, and I had a point and shoot camera, and I was travelling, and I was taking pictures of plants, birds and stuff. And just been lucky. I had a friend and agency and he called me one day. So how can you do that? That gig with us taking pictures of product? And was like, Oh yeah, I bought my first DSLR like the cheapest one I could find just because that that’s what I was thinking was a good way to get started. And I killed them. Like my first gig was so great, because it was something that was kind of easy for me with the small experience I had. I think I’ve been lucky and I did a great job with it. So then I got another one one and then I’ve been able to buy my first full frame which was a five D one back there. So it’s a long time ago. And and then yeah, I’ve continued to do progressively for a year or two. But it’s the passion started to fade out because we’re just taking photos of products. I was doing personal projects where I felt Like it was not bringing anything new, so kind of faded out. My, my professional is programmer. And that Job was giving more liberty, I was able to travel and do programming, but photography, not that much because I had to go to places early in the morning. And I was like, oh, not too sure if it’s for me. So I got quit for a few years, until I got contacted to do a project in 360, with cameras and programming. So I had to cold the whole system to connect all of the cameras together. And that changed my life. Because this is so cool. And the first project I did introduced, you were just live events actually, in people’s jumping, not the most creative things, but I felt like there was something to dig into with this technology. So after one year of going on tour with the that system was only 20 Something cameras back then was like Okay, let’s try to see what we can do as an art firm with this. So I set up just a small system with 24 cameras in the studio. And this is where I met the year old kid Henry.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 6:29
That’s a good segue. You are a dancer how Okay, okay, thank you. Yes, I can’t, I can see how you guys work really well as a team.
Eric Pare 6:50
I felt like I spoke too much. So I wanted to give you the ball.
Kim Henry 6:57
So if I can, like, fill the gap from before we started working together and what brought me to that place, let’s say. So I was a gymnast for many years, like I did competition. And then I decided to study dance. And I was doing mostly like, very high athletic, acrobatic stuff. I was fascinated by details, but also like, Yeah, high intensity movement and stuff like that. And at some point, I got injured, and I got like a surgery. And I was, at that point, I was actually wondering like I was reconsidering my career as a whole. And interestingly enough, like that, let’s say that constraint became like, actually a new opportunity to, like, see a new perspective, a new way to, to see the movement and to see dance and to approach dance differently. So I became fascinated with more minimalistic dance during the time that I could not actually move. And during that process of, yeah, getting interested in like state of presence and minimalism, and what was actually like, how could i Master my body in those very subtle ways. This is where we met. He was doing light painting with dancers in 360. And like, painting is like long exposure time. So the person has to stay still and not move for very, like, a few seconds. And that was exactly where I was at. At that point, I was looking for a way to. So it became like, kind of a dance of stillness. So how to fulfil the body, in stillness. So
Eric Pare 9:08
what she’s not saying is that she changed the project because she was so precise. Sure, so perfect with this stillness, something I’ve never seen before. It wasn’t my beginning. It was just a few months old with this technique. And I’ve never seen something like that before. She she was so good with this. And she became the face of that project that we did in early 2013, nearly 10 years ago, actually. And so that project took life. It’s brought a lot of new opportunities for me, but I didn’t know her. She was part of the project, but I worked with her for one hour and that was it. So after one year of surfing on that project, I decided to contact her back to see what what’s next. Where do we go from here and, and then we started really to work together. So long, much longer story. But we started to travel together and to create more. So I’m not taking pictures of Kim we are dual, we work together. She’s a big part of the creative process. So many of the ideas you see in our images come from her. And yeah, it’s been a while now.
Kim Henry 10:30
Yeah, yeah. So it’s super interesting how, as you said, like, are two very different paths and expertise actually meet in that art expression that we made like ours?
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 10:44
That’s incredible. I it just got me excited to have both of you here. And I was so happy when Eric, you know, say that, you know, you’re gonna rock him in there. Because it’s like to have my passion, you know, that I have in life kind of collide together, you know, dance and photography, that is just incredible. And I love hearing that story. Right? It’s, I mean, when it comes to photography, we see it over and over again, that we love it from the, for the creative part of it, but many of us cannot lose that. lose, lose sight of that, throughout the journey, because you know, whether we’re looking for that followers, the numbers or you know, try to make money off of it, and that kind of fade away. So I think it’s really important to understand to remember why you can get into it, and what’s the biggest purpose? So that’s incredible. So I could say that is so talk to me a little bit about the 360 project, like what is that project? How did it come? Why? Why did the project what what was the project there? What was the main purpose of that project?
Eric Pare 11:59
So the first project was for Chevrolet cars, and it was during a tailgate for a football game in Quebec City. And I was hired to programme the system to connect all the cameras together, and, and show and push the final video on social media. Because back then we were pushing your videos directly to Facebook. So the folks were coming in the centre of our structure, they were jumping, we’re triggering the cameras, and then they were able to share the image. So it was x experience experience or experiment. Expert No, not experiment, but if it experience for the users with a brand, okay, yeah,
Kim Henry 12:50
so at that point, it was really, it was not artistic. It was like a brand paying for a really nice, cool experience for the attendees.
Eric Pare 12:58
Yeah. But there was so much to do with that kind of system. And just this is what I’ve been pushing for for the past 10 years is to see what we can do with this. And that’s how I grew up because back then was was 20 something cameras, and now I’m had 176 in one structure, but I have 400 cameras to haul and the reason why I have that many cameras is because we’ve been doing so many projects, and sometimes we have to ship cameras to different country to make projects. So in the end, like I’m here with tonnes of cameras, and tonnes of creative projects, mostly interest Exede, which also 3d scanning with a different kind of installation. But my playground is really the 260 it’s it’s an all theatre that we turn into, just create a playground, with no windows just pitch black. And we have the subject in the centre of the rig. And then I do either like painting or we do dance movements, we experiment. And we try to improve the technology because we also teach how to make that kind of system, how to use multiple cameras together because the software we did back in the days, it’s still maintained, it’s still developed today. And we power up tonnes of agencies and companies studios working with that kind of technology.
Kim Henry 14:29
And in our case, like what is interesting is that it’s a very like complex setup. It’s a lot of technology and there’s a lot of work behind it obviously like for the software and everything but it’s it’s really how to put all that technology like how to use it for the art how to apply it for the vision like the visual, the artistic vision.
Eric Pare 14:55
So, if you remember in 2013 When we were We’re working together after a sequence we were going outside of the rig. And we’re looking at the playback on the one camera. So we couldn’t see the 360. Right away, we had just guess what it would look like. And we were editing from one camera just to see if the light was good. So we’re scrolling on the one of the 24 cameras just to see if it was okay or not. And then it would take hours to download all of the files, and maybe some were good, maybe not. And now we push the button and have full result is really within a few seconds, fully calibrated and, and ready to do view. So yeah, we, we worked a lot on that we have a team here working on the software on the hardware, so we have technicians and and now when we go in the studio, we can play without thinking too much about the technology is it going to work or not, it is working, because this is what the team is, is there for.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 15:56
That’s, that’s incredible. And so you guys are literally the grandfather of 360 cameras, then
Eric Pare 16:04
I don’t want to say that, I don’t feel comfortable with that. Because other companies were there before me, there are a few other ones. But the way I use it is the way I want to live my life. And I’m lucky to have access to this. And I work for this of course, but like I made the choice to have that, that permanence to do and we’re not many and currently to that kind of thing. And but I want to keep doing this because I feel like we’re into something quite unique, super interesting. And every time we go there, we know that there’s something else to to experiment with something else to discover. Yeah, that’s cool. Same with with photography with one camera, but when you have unrealistic 66 that you can start to think about other ways you can trigger the camera to make different kinds of sequences and, and play with the with the time and space in 3d. So it’s endless. It’s mind blowing, it’s
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 17:09
like when you get a camera, like you have one perspective and you get to you know, like, if you have a 360 camera, then you have so many different perspectives that you can play around with.
Eric Pare 17:20
Yeah, but that’s a good point. And that’s how I learned like painting you truly, because back in the days, there were not there were no tutorials and like waiting for me was just like writing your name with a flashlight. It was not interested in that. But the technique I crafted was to do everything in one second because I wanted to have a very sharp subject. And as I was building this, I was doing trial and errors, but I had access to 24 angles. So I learned faster because of that. So when you have one camera, you see the result, but the result of just four with five degrees difference is totally different. And having access to all of those files made me learn so much quicker than that is glad for that. But it’s very helpful for me.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 18:06
Wow, that’s actually so cool. So I have a few questions for QA as well. But before we get to that, I’m interested on how you tell me that you know, the first thing was the point on shoot, and then you get into the 360 project. Now, where does the light painting came in? Like, at what time you go like, you know what, I’m gonna start doing this really cool stuff with the light painting and create, you know, circles and you know, sparks and pattern and all these incredible stuff that I have never seen before.
Eric Pare 18:40
Yeah, and it makes sense. Once I explained the reason why because I had no interest with like painting, as most people refer back then because I didn’t know any like printers doing professional work. I found a few while researching for that. But prior to that, like like I think we’re just making like growing hard to notice at all. However, as I was saying, I was in a very small studio with 24 cameras. It was so small and I had experienced with strobes likes to do lightweight softbox these big things, but I couldn’t use that because it was too big. And I was lighting up the whole rig with my with my lights. So I had to find a way to use very concentrated light around my subject. So I took a flashlight and I started to draw around around my subject and it worked. And then I started to get more interested and I found really good light painters like there was already something back then. So some very inspiring artists and I worked with with one of them and he’s actually in Montreal, Patrick fashion which is one of the best painters in the world. We don’t hear much about him now because he’s not very active on social media, but Is is so good with this. And I saw him working. And he was doing like a one minute exporter and crazy light. And it was like, Oh, that can be something like there’s something there crafting the light by hand. It’s so different this is this is so different. So from that point, I was not behind the camera, it was with the subject in front of the camera. And I wasn’t interested to do super long exposure, because I wanted to have a very sharp subject. So this is how I came up with that once again, exposure technique. But then how did we bring that outdoors that happened with him a few years after a boss, I’m passing the ball. Yeah. Do we go there?
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 20:41
Yeah, let’s go.
Kim Henry 20:42
Yeah, so we were back. In 2015, we were teaching light painting in studio. We’ve been teaching since the beginning, basically, but and every time like we were, every time we would do a workshop would ask for people to like, would try to get some new tools and different stuff the day of so we could actually show people that we can do like painting with basically anything. So flip flops, Apple and things like that. And a friend of us, we were in in San Francisco, and a friend of us actually recommended us to go to a place called Tap plastic, because we could find some plastic stuff and acrylic. And we got there. And then we’re like, was it for four feet, four feet long plastic to make for like, fluorescent to cover fluorescent lights. And we’re like, oh, that could be a really nice tool. It’s a very big tool, because we’ve been trying maybe a few months earlier to bring like painting outdoors. And it was it was not a big success. Like, we were not satisfied. Everything was very visible. And we didn’t have like high quality. So we just leave it at that for that moment. But when we saw those big tools, those big plastic tubes are like, Oh, I think there’s something there. So we took one thing, yeah, just one, we only bought one we bought like other stuff for the workshop. And we did that. And it was it was super fun. But that night, we went out on the beach with that same friend. And we just started with the same flashlight that we had the same. And it was actually good. Yeah, it
Eric Pare 22:33
was exactly the style, you know, of us working outdoors at the blue hour with one circle. This is exactly what we created that night on the first night trying something with that long do we define that style that is much more popular than anything else we’ve been doing in 360? Because this is accessible. This is how we created a community. It’s by teachings on that night, where we were like, oh, it’s something so cool to play with. We’re like, what do we do with this? Are we going to keep it as a secret? Or are we going to reveal it? And we decided to just share everything. And that was a good decision. Because it’s it’s got to be easy. It’s accessible. It’s not expensive. And now 10s of 1000s of people are doing this. It’s so cool.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 23:23
Yes, that is the right word. It’s so cool. Because like, I’m getting goosebumps right now just like hearing you get like you’re you guys explaining this, but like, like, I looked at it and what’s really cool about it is you know, with with with light, as you can experience, you can create a smooth or like a sharp thing, especially at night with photography. And you create that and you create the dynamic you you can use an even like you create, like with the tape to create a different pattern and then you have sparkles on the you know, the outside. It’s just so cool. Like, you know, like, we always think How did you come up with that and it’s so cool to hear the story behind it. So, so then now I can call you guys the grandfather of the tube light painting then is that right?
Eric Pare 24:25
I will never claim that I invented that. Okay, some people do but like PT has been there forever. And some people we found after afterward that some people were especially German people were using similar tools but did nothing the same way. But we found one picture that is very aligned with what we do and in dates from way before we were there probably in the 90s Okay, and I have to find that photographer. It’s a it’s a music album and the cover is with the tube picture and I don’t want to reveal that show now. But we’ll come back when they would with the answer. But yeah, so I never claimed that I invented that. But clearly, we made it popular. And that’s super satisfying. Can we read something we just received? We just receive a message? I think it fits well with the topic.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 25:19
100% Jump in.
Eric Pare 25:23
So yeah, I was thinking,
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 25:25
is this the Indonesian? Is it Indonesians as well.
Eric Pare 25:29
So so someone on Instagram shared our work, and I just replied, thanks for sharing. And she she replied with this. Okay.
Kim Henry 25:39
My pleasure. I love you guys work and have learned a lot from you. You inspired me to light pain to do light painting to begin with. And I followed your journey for many years now. I am always impressed with each new creation, you and Kim come up with. Fun fact, I met my partner while I was like painting on the beach because he was doing the same thing. And we bonded over both having followed you and learned from you. I can’t emphasise enough how cool I think what you do
Eric Pare 26:09
is it’s so much more than the it’s making people connect and become life partners.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 26:18
What do you want more than this? Wow,
Eric Pare 26:21
she made my day for sure.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 26:24
That’s incredible. And this is why I love having people on the podcast this because this kind of stuff you wouldn’t hear otherwise. Right? And it That is incredible. You know? That is? That is so cool. So like, you know, I got a funny question for you. And you know, Erica, earlier in, in when we first can chat here in the podcast, you can assess like, Well, I’m very technical. And then Kim is the creative one. So I’m just wondering, how much of that, you know, from the photography? How much how does the creativity work between the two of you? How do you come up with the concept and you know, the pose and the lighting and the landscape? Because you do think about that, you know, when I see your photograph, you think about where you put it, you know, where, whether it’s at nighttime with the stars, or remember, you’re posting something with the tail of the Milky Way, and you’re like, I don’t know where the Milky Way is, but the tail is still pretty beautiful or something like that. So how does that creativity work between the two of you to create this masterpieces?
Eric Pare 27:44
For me, it’s trial and error. I know you try a lot of things. And so sometimes you see all of this is working. So then you jam on that and then gets you other ideas. A lot of my work is based on constraints. Okay, so as I was saying, on 360, if I use like painting was because of the constraints, and I impose myself a lot of constraints, like I’m never using a flash outdoors, even though I know would be easier to freeze my subject, I don’t want to go there. Because I feel like there’s so much more about using a single source of light that you use to light up your subject have the trace of light, it feels like everything blends well together. So I I keep my thoughts on that. So there is that constraint that is helping the the creative decisions, the the overall identity that we crafted over over the years. But then can keep keeps challenging me about things that I’m like, It’s not possible. Don’t even think about that.
Kim Henry 28:47
And I try it anyway.
Eric Pare 28:52
And the best example is one day, she was like, Oh, I can I could like take sand in my hands. And then you do the circle. I was like, No, it’s a long exposures not going to work. And of course, that’s super pretty because she she’s good with that kind of thing. She’s super precise, to start to release the sand one hand after the other while I was doing the circle, like perfect timing, and she got it the first night. We try that.
Kim Henry 29:21
If I can add to that, I think we’re both very curious people. And we both really like challenges. So we’d like to push or the limits of what we think is possible. And yeah, we always use constraints. So let’s say I usually say as a joke, like, I like plans, sometimes we plan thing, but what I like even more is to change plans. You know, like when the plan doesn’t work, or doesn’t seem to work then how do we adapt, adjust and come up with something and play with what is here in front of us. So I think it’s a I don’t know if it’s a philosophy, but it’s a way to approach our creative life. And life in general, I’d say
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 30:08
100% 100% I think that is a lot of how, you know, like, I, when I hear Eric is like, very logical, it’s like, well, we try this, it works. And then we kind of just, you know, change it up. And then it’s just like, Yeah, you know, let’s just try something crazy. Yeah, I can see how you know that dynamic really works.
Kim Henry 30:28
But I’m also very analytic, like a, like, joke, as I’m very like, up in the air. And, you know, but I’m very analytic. And I like to, and I’m usually the one who, when we do something, let’s say almost by luck, and we’re not sure how it happens, then I’m the one who tries to dig and understand and like, figure out what what we did. So we can actually do it again. Maybe you’re just so I’m pretty nerdy as well.
Eric Pare 30:56
Yeah. And that’s very helpful for me, because there are so many details that I don’t see. And she’s, she knows, like a lot of things that it’s just too much for me. And that’s, that’s also why she’s helping a lot in when we have, like corporate games here this to do, like we get hired by brands to do stuff in 360 and work with dancer sometimes. And she always like, finds the little things that we can improve. And like she does creative direction here, things that I’m so clueless about. So, super lucky that she she sparked up this whole story.
Kim Henry 31:35
Yeah, so I guess once again, it’s like, complementary strengths that we put underneath.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 31:41
Yeah. Wow, that is really cool. So now I kind of want to ask a few questions for Kim. And, you know, you mentioned how you were a dancer and you got injured and and then you, you have to explore a different a different technique or different way to express yourself to dancing. Now, when I see this with photography, like, like what Eric mentioned earlier, they’re just incredible. Because, you know, it’s so sharp or for that long exposure, you can see a very good details on yourself. What are some of the techniques that, you know, that that you can share? So the, you know, the audience who are, you know, attempting to, to do what you guys are doing can get the same result? How can you stand still, for that long, you know, such a long time. With such, I could say, quite complicated poses as well, like, you know, it’s not just like standing up, right, you have like your hands here. Really, really elegant. poses?
Kim Henry 32:55
Um, good question. Well, I guess the first thing is communication, I, Eric needs to let me know, like, we have a way to communicate that, in order for me to know when he’s about to trigger, and when the exposure ends. So that’s one thing. We, when we teach, we always say people, we always tell people to hold their breath, because that’s a very technical aspect, but it helps because even like the movement of the lungs, like, when you inhale, I’d say it’s going to create movement in the body, which is enough to make the person’s blurred. But more on the like, what practices I think are helping me to achieve this. When it comes to, like, it requires a lot of focus, like to be able to sustain focus and concentration for a long period of time. So any meditative practice helps in that regard. Also, like while we shoot I do body scan to make sure that my my limbs are like, at the same place not only at the same place but also that my body is still vibrant and alive and full of energy if that makes sense. Because otherwise like when you stay still for a long period of time, like the body tends to like get stiff a bit so yeah, and I train so like so my body and muscles are able to maintain like a position for for a bit because we don’t think about it but let’s say even just lifting the chin for a minute you can already feel like the weight of the you know the head that is heavy. So, so yeah, I don’t know. It’s a it’s practice. And between, I’ll say, like, whenever I can also, I will move between poses between like,
Eric Pare 35:11
I thought you were chasing mosquitoes
Kim Henry 35:14
that also different circumstances. So yeah, I just do like a reset of my bodies in my state of mind whenever I can. So I’ll like move it and like shake it off to make sure that I stay like, present.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 35:34
Nice. Yeah. Yeah. So like, you know, you train your muscle and you know, so that you can have the strength basically, to keep it still. And then you also relax and come back to it to kind of reset. So yeah, that 100% That, that that’s really cool.
Kim Henry 35:49
I’ll add to that I train my mind as well, because we shoot in like harsh conditions, sometimes, like cold, high wind mosquitoes. So I yeah, I think I think it requires, or at least I developed an endurance. Like, in that regard, as well.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 36:14
Cool. Yeah, no, that’s awesome. Let’s get to learn. And I’m sure the listeners can can learn a lot from that. Now, one thing that I’m interested in is to hear you know, it’s been a long journey for you guys. You’ve been doing this for a long, long time. Was there? What was the hardest time that you have to come across? Was there any time where you maybe you almost quit? Maybe you you start? You know, not enjoying what you do? Or whatever it may be? Do you have any some sort of struggles that almost, you know, a struggle that that probably the biggest struggle that you’ve ever come across during your journey?
Eric Pare 36:59
Can I take you Yeah, no, never. I’ve never had that. No, never thought about quitting never had any big struggle with having fun. And you can see, like, based on the result, it’s a game we’re playing in. It’s just too much fun. So I definitely think I’ll grab that
Kim Henry 37:19
one. Well, I think the fact that we have many pillars in our creative journey, like we have 360, we have the outdoor light painting, and we also have like the dense performative, outdoor art, I feel like it’s a matter for us. Of which one do we put more energy and efforts in, because we don’t do we don’t do one thing for a whole year, like we go from one to the other, it’s like a, we’re juggling with those different techniques, I think, and I feel like they all feed each other, meaning that when we work hard on a project, let’s say 360, then we’ll discover something and we learned from it that we can apply to outdoor light painting. So it’s, it’s kind of I feel like it prevents us from getting
Eric Pare 38:26
from getting bored, though. So it’s a very complete technique because it like we have to keep in shape. And you all know that if you train every day, you’re going to be happier because it changes you your brain Okay? And just doing this, this kind of work is training Okay, when we walk for an hour and sand dunes with a heavy bag, just to reach the final point like looking for that perfect Dune is quite challenging. And this is what I really like about this I actually prefer being being like on a trip because I feel like I’m more active now we’re in the studio for two two months and I’m not as active right by we have to post process the images that’s that’s cool. And it’s kind of a it’s kind of a vacation because we can slow down the pace here the studio, but then we’re going to go back in vacation into in two weeks on the road because this also feels like vacation. So when a vacation is the vacation from the other vacation. You don’t get bored.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 39:37
Oh yeah, that’s awesome. It sounds like a dream life.
Kim Henry 39:42
Well, I feel like well, two things I was thinking about. The first one is the fact that yeah, like we say that like painting is a lifestyle and I think that’s a bit but Eric just explained like we we know that in order to achieve what we want to achieve We need to be disciplined and take care of our bodies of our mind. So have a balanced life, which means that we don’t work all day like we work really hard. But we also like, kind of impose time to like, Take breaks and like do other stuff. And also, what was the other one? Oh, yeah, he always he always says that. We’re still at the beginning of something. And I think that that kind of links to what do they call it? Like, the beginner’s mind, something like that, you know, like that approach of curiosity and of feeling that we’re not at the end of the journey. So we’re focusing on the journey itself, which makes it like kind of, yeah, helpful.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 40:50
Exciting. Yeah, it’s always exciting.
Eric Pare 40:54
I have to just make some precision here, just to clarify, because, like, we’re talking with all those, like, beautiful journeys we have, and everything looks perfect. And it kind of is, and but it’s might seem to be impossible to reach some time. Because, and because we’re also paid to do this. It’s crazy. Like we were paid to, to have this vacation and vacation vacation. But it didn’t arrive. We can one day, and this is by doing that kind of work for years. And so there was for me, too, is 10 years of trials and error before getting the first bucks from from a creative work. So you have to be dedicated. Of course, it’s taking a long time, but it’s really worth it.
Kim Henry 41:50
Yeah, yeah, I think exactly. It’s not like, it’s not easy. It’s not like your success story. It’s it’s like, it’s also, there’s, as you said, like a lot of work on like both of art, like different paths and common one. But I really feel like the way we individually approach our work and our art, artwork is similar in our dedication, and in our way to focus on what we want to focus on, which is the positive, the excitement, the like, the possibilities. But we do have setbacks, and we do have like, it’s yeah, it’s not always easy. I’ll say that. But I feel like it’s a conscious decision to like, does that make sense?
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 42:50
That is incredible. No, I love that. I love that so much. Because, you know, like, one quote that really stuck with me this year was whatever you focus on become your reality. And I know like going through, you know, all of this journey, I’m sure there must be a lot of struggle that you guys go through, but it seems like you don’t focus on that, like, given se, you just focus on the beginner’s mind, you know, it’s like, oh, well, you know, it’s, we’re, you know, it’s like seeing it’s like going to the beach for the first time you’re excited. And you know, you always just focus on that next new exciting things like what you can came up with, what sort of innovation you can do with your art and so forth. So I think that’s a lot to, to, to learn from, to be able to always enjoy the journey through our you know, even the hardest time and to a point where you guys don’t even feel it. I think that’s really cool.
Eric Pare 43:51
I forget about the negatives. Just like my guts to go against running away.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 43:59
That is awesome. That is so cool. Yeah. So I have a just an interesting question here. You know, Eric, you’re very technical. You love photography. And Kim, you’re very creative. You like dance. Now? How much? How good are you on doing each other’s shows? If we were just for fun thank you know, sup your role and have Eric do the posting and the dancing and the photography?
Eric Pare 44:35
I have one most I have only one post. But yeah, we have a few pictures where we switch roles. Just because why not? So it’s good for us to play both roles. We learn more by doing this. And that’s something we we always mentioned in our workshops is to try to do both roles, because once you understand the challenge of the subject of the model and see due for you to just to get better at directing?
Kim Henry 45:04
Oh, yeah. But yeah, I enjoy doing the light painting, I think I could probably get away with the framing habits have something that makes sense. But to change the settings during the blue hour at the speed that he does, that would take me a while, that’s for sure. He runs like back and forth every few minutes to change the settings. And
Eric Pare 45:26
yes, and I handle three cameras on the field, okay, because I always pin what I do. I’m by myself, yeah, handling three cameras, two different focal length one film me, and I run the largest settings. But I’m used to that because of the multi camera systems. So I’m just used to to handle love technology and things like that. It’s part of the fun. But yeah, but I’m sure you’d be good with with one camera, if you can focus on this one and just like, set the right composition and setting, you know.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 46:02
Wow, that’s cool. So now I want to talk about you know, your Kim, your latest project. And I’ve been seeing this in Twitter, I think I saw it for the first time. I think about a few weeks ago, a couple a week ago or something like that, right? And actually, I’m not, I’m not gonna say too much about it, because it’s gonna give it away, I’ll let you ship it first, and then I’ll say something about it.
Kim Henry 46:29
So my latest project is called timeless. It’s kind of the continually of what we’ve been doing, or what we’ve been doing for years, let’s say, because when we were travelling, we would arrive on location very, like, early, like, late afternoon. And then we would shoot dance photography. So sunset, dance and stuff like that. So we can we could actually connect to each other. And I could connect with the environment, which for me is very important my process. So So time is is is my baby. It’s basically like, What can I say? Can I see what I’m saying everything.
Eric Pare 47:21
But it’s all about the textures. The first idea you had was to, to use mud cracks, because we’ve been working on cracks and some desserts. And you were very interested in that texture. And you wanted to experiment with having that on your skin and combine both. But that didn’t work. We we played with this in studio for a few weeks. And then we went to replicate that in the field with the real mud cracks, but we couldn’t find any. So then the product evolved into other things. And we started to experiment with different textures like salt.
Kim Henry 47:55
So different matter, different, different way to immerse myself in the environment and connect with the environment. Be it sand dust, but it’s all started with clay. And I think it’s whole in line with my fascination for, like presence and like state of attention and intention of the body in connection with nature. So that’s, that’s how it started.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 48:29
Wow. Yeah, that’s cool. Like, I really can feel that, like, you know, the emotion. And you know, when I first saw, I think Eric was sharing one of the photo from that, and then I just can feel that emotion and you know, with how you use the sand and use that dynamic with with your movement, because there was a lot of movement in that in that in that photo. Ironically, but not gonna steal oil. There’s a lot of movement. So yeah, that’s, that’s really cool. Thanks a lot for sharing that. Sorry. Yeah,
Kim Henry 49:01
thank you for asking, Well, what I’m trying to what we’re trying to do with that is to kind of encapsulate really, like, short moment of ephemeral performances, because that’s what we do when we’re outside. Like, I’m not posing per se, I’m really performing dancing, and we don’t actually talk Eric is there you take pictures, videos, but it’s really like it’s a short moment of performance that we’re trying to capture basically.
Eric Pare 49:36
Yeah, I don’t direct her because I have no idea how to do that. So I’m going to give her some indications like can you turn 90 degree because the sun it’s better on that direction but that’s that’s about it and the rest is all her ideas and her way of moving song. I’m just here behind the camera, taking pictures, but that’s mostly her her thing
Kim Henry 49:59
like Once again, that could exist if it were not from that collaborative process because it’s a very personal project. And I wouldn’t do it with some somebody else and Eric because I trust him. I know his vision I, I trust his artistic input. So, so yeah, I feel like it’s my performance. I kind of it’s a very vulnerable state when I perform. But obviously could not exist if he was not on board with me.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 50:38
Oh, yeah, that’s, that’s really cool. So just to kind of understand a little bit about the process. So you know, you kind of get into find your location. And basically, it came you do your dances and your movement? Is that right? And then Eric was just there to observe and then take photo whenever you feel it feels like it’s a good frame.
Eric Pare 51:01
Burst Mode, I just
continues to burst mode. I have no idea what I’m doing. Love that.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 51:20
So, Erica, I was still wondering when you take photo of that, do you? Like do you know what Kim was? Yeah. Do you know what Kim was about to do? Like, or have you ever seen the movement? Or is it like, absolutely new, just go like, whoa, okay, that was cool kind of thing. Or it’s like, okay, you know, this is where she can usually take his and so forth.
Eric Pare 51:45
Alright, so I never watched movies, okay. But I used to back in the days and sometimes I would ask my friend, if you can we go to watch a movie and I don’t want to know what that would be a lot of surprise. Okay. And sometimes I feel like it’s like this with Kim. Okay, so I’m behind the camera. I have no idea what’s going on. I know it’s going to be a show. Okay. And I’m the lucky one, assisting this wonderful dance show. And I get to click the button. And that’s about it. But yeah, it’s always fun to the witness. I feel very lucky to be part of this.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 52:23
Wow. Yeah. No, that’s cool. I I’m much the same. Actually. When I steal movie, I hate watching trailers. I just go like, that looks interesting. And you know, I want to watch it. So yeah, that’s, that’s really cool to hear. Well, guys, we’re kind of hitting the one hour mark. And you know, it’s been so much fun. It’s so much pleasure to hear to have you here and to hear your story. Now, before you go. One last question that I always ask my guests. And both of you can give me one each right. I saw Eric’s getting tense.
Eric Pare 52:56
What’s that question? I know. I’m not
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 53:03
awesome. Well, you know, just you just say this earlier. You just say that you like surprise. So here’s the surprise. If there was one advice that you know, you could give to an audience or to your younger self, or you know, to anyone in this world, whether it be photography live or whatever it may be, what would that advice be?
Eric Pare 53:30
Yeah, so I’m going to be okay, I guess I’m saying that to myself, just because I doubt that, but everything’s gonna be okay. Just keep doing what you do. Should I give?
Kim Henry 53:45
To my younger self? That’s a good one. Let me think, I guess, I guess I would say to not take things too seriously. To connect to the playfulness, and to the curiosity, and yeah, probably like to trust your intuition.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 54:18
Yeah. Wow. That’s really great advice. So have fun, and it’s all gonna be okay. That’s perfect. It’s so simple, but it makes sense. Like, where are we complicated ly so
Kim Henry 54:30
yeah, but not not in the sense that not in I don’t mean this in a like denial way. Like it’s going to be okay. You’re not going to face anything, but just to trust that you actually have the tool to face whatever you’re gonna have on the path, you know?
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 54:48
Yeah. Wow. Now that’s that is a great advice. All right. You guys really appreciate your time here. I really enjoy having you here. So much fun talking to you. You guys are just You know, such a great human being, hopefully I get to connect and actually meet you guys in person one day. But for the audience who want to get in touch with you who want to learn more about what you do, because I know you guys are teaching and sharing so much knowledge on, you know, to paintings and all this stuff. And perhaps for those of them who want to sign up to your workshop, what is the best way to connect with you and to find you.
Eric Pare 55:26
So we rarely do workshops, while we did a lot in the days, but I think we do two per year. And it’s always organised with bigger organisation. So we don’t do any by ourselves for the moment. But we teach everything online on YouTube for free, never charge anything for, for tutorials, all of the knowledge is there. And you can find all of the links from tube stories that TV
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 55:54
by and fantastic and I’ll be sure to put that you know, that link on the description as well as both of your social media so that you know people can connect, connect with your work more and see more of your work. And if this is the first time of you. For listeners, if this is the first time that you heard, Eric and Kim, man, you’re in for a treat, just just go into social media trust me, you know, I’ll buy you ice cream if you don’t
Yeah, no, no, but if you if you guys get intrigued with the with the with, you know, with their work, it’s the other way around. You guys buy me ice cream, so I’m ready to eat a lot of ice cream. But um, yeah. Thanks a lot, guys for being here. I love talking to you guys. There’s just so much fun. Perhaps one day, we’ll have you back. And we’ll have we’ll cover a different topic. But it’s been such a pleasure. You know, I follow your work for a while. And I’ve seen what you did with photography with lights and innovation that you put in the space and how you share a lot of this with the people. And it’s it’s just been an honour to be able to actually talk to you guys, and have you guys in my podcast sharing these inspiring stories. So thanks a lot for being here, guys.
Eric Pare 57:22
Thank you, Stanley. We’re super happy to be part of your wonderful podcast. Yeah, it
Kim Henry 57:26
was a pleasure. Thank you so much.
Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt 57:29
Fantastic. Well, weekenders thank you for very much for tuning in. Hopefully you get a lot of gems from that. And if you haven’t already done so make sure you check out both Kim and Eric as well as their work. Dances and Kim’s latest project is something that are quite enjoyed. Actually, there’s so many emotions in just a stillness. So make sure you check it out. But with that being said, if you enjoyed this conversation, make sure you leave a review on on the podcast on the platform so that more more people can listen in and heard about them. But with that being say, keep creating, keep shooting and I’ll see you guys next week.
