Post 17 - Baltimore Light City 2018
8-minute read, including photo captions at bottom
Panorama of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor taken from Federal Hill Park, with the Beach Volleyball courts and the Pride of Baltimore Memorial in the foreground
“Balmer” - or “Baltimore” as it’s often pronounced by the uninitiated - has been hosting the Light City celebration since 2016, which was the 200th anniversary of the first public demonstration of gas lighting.
In 1816, Rembrandt Peale - prolific painter and museum curator, most famous for his portraits of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson - amazed patrons by lighting a roomful of paintings with a gas light without wicks, oil, or smoke! His house was the first in Baltimore to be lit with gas lighting, and Baltimore was the first city in the country to be illuminated by gas street lamps. These street lamps were erected by the Gas Light Company of Baltimore - now know as Baltimore Gas and Electric, or BGE - one of the sponsors of the Light City event.
Rembrandt Peale’s famous portraits of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson
202 years after that gassy event, I found myself wandering through Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to take in the sights of the third annual Light City celebration.
You know, as a photographer, I'm all about "light", so calling something "Light City" is like rubbing catnip all over chocolate. If you happen to be a cat….that likes chocolate.…that’s also a photographer….ok, that doesn’t quite make the sense “on paper” that it did in my head, but I think you get the idea…..
Meanwhile, back at the Harbor….
When I first heard about Baltimore Light City, with (gulp) night time drone races (!?!), I practically started gibbering. All the stuff about world-renowned artists contributing innovative installations spread out over a half-dozen neighborhoods was just words swimming on the page. Did you say Drone Prix? That’s like adding cognac to catnip-chocolate.
Unfortunately, the imagining is often more grandiose than the reality, and the Drone Prix, was a case in point. Beset with frequent crashes and technical issues, the drones weren’t as exciting as I’d hoped. Oh well, the rest of the evening made up for it.
Ironically, though, due to huge crowds in certain areas that night, and some installations being shut down by the time I made my way to them, I think I got some of my best shots during the afternoon and evening, before the festivities got into full swing.
There was a gorgeous sunset, which cast some wonderful golden light and shadows on the buildings surrounding the Inner Harbor, and the subsequent blue hour left its magical mark as well.
The video and photos below - displayed chronologically throughout the afternoon and evening - should give you a good idea of what the event was like.
To begin with, here is a list and map of all the displays - I will refer to the ones I saw by number and description in the photo captions below
Here’s a quick, 4-minute overview of what the afternoon and evening of Baltimore Light City 2018 was like:
The USS Constellation, launched in 1854 and used in various capacities until 1893, is now a museum ship moored in the Inner Harbor
A day when old and young showed off their finest hairdos (and hats)
With temps in the low to mid-80’s, a lot of kids were enjoying the fountain in West Shore Park - this boy in particular seemed to find the intermittent jets thrilling
It does actually look like a lot of fun….
Backlit by the sinking sun, this vignette of the 180 origami butterflies contained within installation #9, “On the Wings of Freedom”, showcases their simple yet intricate design. The pieces were lit from within by multi-colored lights flashing in sequential waves, but by the time I made it back around to this site in the dark (about 21:30), it had been turned off, so I never got to see it “in action”.
Installation #5, “Elantica” by Tom Dekyvere, was a solar-powered sculpture made of artfully-glued circuit boards. In the dark, the entire structure was lit from within by alternating colored lights, as seen below (and in the video).
The Japanese Stone Lantern was donated to Baltimore by its sister city, Kawasaki, Japan in 1984. Federal Hill Park is in the background.
The Ferris Wheel, as seen from Federal Hill Park, with “Prismatica” (#10) in front of it (more on that below), and “On the Wings of Freedom” (#9) on the lawn on the far left (behind the “Shine on Baltimore” sign).
The iconic Domino Sugar factory as seen from Federal Hill Park
As I was descending the long stairway on the west side of Federal Hill Park, I was attracted to the lowering sun shining off the cobblestones of this side street. As I composed the shot, only the bus was in the frame, but just as I pressed the shutter, that bicyclist zipped by on a cross street.
The chaotic lines and angles of the sculpture, entitled “Easy Landing”, in front of the Maryland Science Center looked enticing when sidelit by the shielded sun
A line of Pedicabs festooned with multi-colored balloons
Attraction #16, “Colour Moves”, presented by the Rombout Frieling Lab of the Netherlands, was an interactive, ground-based light display with projections and shapes that changed as people walked on it (it was closed at the time this shot was taken)
The wavy roof of the Baltimore Visitor Center illuminated by the setting sun
As the sun sank lower in the sky, I got a series of shots of some of the high rise buildings surrounding the Inner Harbor. The waning, golden light was conducive to that soft, “unsharp” style that I have started to gravitate toward more and more since I “discovered” it while processing the Shenandoah photos.
Another soft-focus sun-setting architectural piece
The golden light of the setting sun reflected in the glass matched the street light, and contrasted nicely with the aqua shades of the sky tinting the walls of this building
The reflected golden yellow sky made a striking color combination with the red brick and blue glass
The iconic storefront of the Barnes & Noble book store and Hard Rock Cafe in the waning light
The Hard Rock Cafe guitar reflected in an adjacent building
The natural purple-red color of this brick building is complemented by the warm light, and contrasted by the yellow and blue reflections in the glass
The strikingly peaked roof structure of the National Aquarium in the waning light
The propeller “sculpture” outside the National Aquarium, with the Domino Sugar factory in the background - using the “unsharp” Painterly Color process again for that subdued pastel effect
Striking blue-hour colors of some of the buildings around the Inner Harbor
Blue-hour building reflections
Magical blue-hour painterly/pastel colors with leading lines that strongly draw the eye to the center of the frame
Even the water takes on a surreal/abstract color palette with the reflections of all the displays and installations of Light City
The Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse - a Baltimore landmark dating from 1855
There were several smoke machines running on the Harbor Bridge Walk (footbridge), and this lady had stopped posing for her friends in the foreground as they checked the shot they had just taken of her on the phone. When she saw me with the camera up to my eye, she started hamming it up again - thanks for the great pose, whoever you are!
The rubber duckies of installation #46, “The Herd” by Kelley Bell from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, were for sale based on a sign up farther along that read “Take me home”. The proceeds were to be sent to various groups working to improve the water quality of the Harbor.
The submerged blue flashing lights of installation #35, “Some Thing in the Water” came under the heading of “ok, but somewhat underwhelming”
Although a lot of people seemed to enjoy it - and it made for some colorful photos - I didn’t really “get” installation #32, “Synesthesia”. With a name like that, I thought there would be something special going on that might simulate or elicit an “alternate” sensory experience (like “tasting color”, or whatever) - but to me it was just music and lights, no different than you’d see at any club, bar, concert, whatever. Another one for the “ok, but underwhelming” column.
The “Synesthesia” attraction made for some great “unsharp”, super-saturated, painterly/pastel shots, but that’s about it….
“Whale Ghost” - installation # 26 - was among the best I saw at Light City. Not only was the programmed motion of the whale “ribs” remarkably realistic, but the electronic “whale song” soundtrack that accompanied it was fascinating and spooky - really well done.
Check out the video for some footage of the interesting “Whale Ghost”
Pedicab driver trying to make his way through the crowd
The parade that culminated the night’s festivities was percussive and LOUD! I must have caught this guy off guard when I raised my camera above the crowd and fired off a few frames without looking - he looks a little, shall we say, “nonplussed”?
A fun installation was #12, “Social Sparkles” - another creation originating from the Netherlands. Meant to simulate a swarm of fireflies, it was essentially a bunch of LEDs suspended from a mesh grid, dangling from thin wires that were randomly jiggled by electric motors. This long exposure of about half a second shows their chaotic motion. Judging from that woman’s reaction in the lower right corner of the frame, I wasn’t the only one that enjoyed it….
“Prismatica” - installation #10 - was one of the more popular of the evening, from what I could tell. Of course, the amount of alcohol flowing out of nearby bars played no small part in elevating the mood of some people….
“Prismatica” consisted of a series of Plexiglas pillars, lit from within by prisms and mirrors that, when spun, produced swirling colors and kaleidoscopic effects
It was an all-ages source of entertainment where you could…um…let it all hang out…as it were….
This is a Photoshop composite of 3 images of the same man walking in front of one of the “Prismatica” pillars as it rotated
Baltimore Light City 2018 - klieg lights sweeping the sky in farewell at the end of a long night
Most of the photos for this post are shown in the Gallery - don’t forget to check that out. Enjoy!
As always, thanks for reading my blog posts!
Next Saturday we jet over to Georgetown for a “glowing” review - don’t miss it!
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