9 Full Moon Drawings
Paul Wong, 2011
32.84 x 41.993″
photography
Edition of 3

The individual photos, which depict the trace of a brilliant moon shining in a night sky, were taken with a still camera that Wong moved while shooting. The combination of this movement and the long exposure time have resulted in a print series of long, curving calligraphic marks realized in glowing light, each mark surrounded by a purplish aura against the surrounding darkness. It’s as if Wong has reached up and dragged the moon itself across the sky, then recorded its eloquent trail of luminescence.

-Robin Laurence, Paul Wong, Border Crossing Review

21 Full Moon Drawings
Paul Wong, 2011
33.17 x 96″
photography
Edition of 3

Full Moon Drawings (2011), is a series of 21 photographs shot with a still camera, which Wong describes as “drawings”. Taking the camera and moving it while shooting during a long exposure causes the light of the moon to streak across the surface of the film according to the path of the camera in Wong’s hands. On a formal level it is the very opposite of video, where movement is implied before the image is completely rendered, and the camera is the thing that moves rather than image itself. The image doesn’t have to move, because everything around it is already in motion; the movement of the earth around the sun, the moon around the earth, and finally, the artist’s hands on the camera. Wong demonstrates that photography can be a material and physical and expressive practice, rather than a strictly mechanical one.

–Kathleen Ritter, Immanent: Paul Wong

Available at Paul Wong Projects