Light and Emotions: Exploring Lighting Cultures edited by V. Laganier & J. van der Pol.
This book claims to be the first global study of the work of lighting designers. Featuring interviews with forty-seven lighting designers from across the world, it explores their work and how it changes according to context and culture.
Interviewees come from a range of backgrounds, including interior, exterior, art, stage and cinema lighting. The book’s authors speak to Francesca Bettridge and Stephen Bernstei, who worked on the lighting design of 7 World Trade Center, the first building to be put up at Ground Zero in New York. Here, a combination of white and blue LEDs for the outside podium create a “magical” and “serene” space. It’s a telling project, depicting how lighting can have aesthetic and emotional aspects, not just functional ones.
Another lighting designer, Cinzia Ferrara, undertook the lighting of the Necropolis in Vatican City. Because of the project’s hypogeal and historic nature, it required complex lighting that defined details and contributed to the eerie atmosphere. Other world landmarks and lighting design exemplars include the Sydney Opera House and Greece’s Rion Antirion Bridge – projects that show extraordinary brightness, colour and direction.
Edited by V. Laganier & J. van der Pol (Birkhäuser, 2011) 416 PP $54.50.
