"Exploding light bulbs as a sedative": a recipe from John Smith

Chemist and photographer John Smith fills light bulbs with unusual contents such as colored chalk dust, small candies, colorful liquids and even beer bottle caps. And then he shoots at the light bulbs with a gun. Smith captures the moment when the light bulbs explode with his high-speed camera.

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1. “People see and use light bulbs every day. They are from the category of those everyday objects that we never focus on, says Smith himself. “By exploding light bulbs filled with different colored fillings, I create a unique relationship that interests me very much.”

2. John took up photography to take his mind off his chemistry classes, to release the energy that was languishing inside and to realize his creative potential.

“I needed something that could balance my analytical mind. An activity that I could control and enjoy," he says. And John chose high-speed shooting. He fell in love with her because the camera captures moments that people do not have time to capture with their own eyes. "It's that special moment between before and after where the magic happens - it's beautiful."

3. “It's always a lot of fun. I use all sorts of feathers, flowers, balls, dust. In general, everything I find.

4. “I'm always surprised by the end result of a photograph. Before shooting, I always have a clear vision in my head of what I want to get. But instead, in the photographs, the light bulbs explode a thousand times better than the original idea.

5. “I was in a deep depression and felt as if nothing was happening around me at all, and there was nothing good. It was as if I had lost control of myself and my life,” says the artist. — Photographs of light bulbs exploding saved me because they allowed me to look at the world with different eyes. The light bulb has become for me a symbol of light in the dark.”

6. “The process of preparing a light bulb for shooting is a special ritual for me. She has to become momentarily different from what she is before and after filming, in that one brief moment when the light bulb explodes. This is the moment that epitomizes the beauty of destruction. It helped me understand what I really need to focus on. Not in the past, not in the future, only in the present. Now I understand it."

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