When JanLeonardo Woellert began working as a photographer, he took photos only at night. During this period he developed new techniques in the fields of light drawing and so-called “dark night photography,” illuminating and accentuating his subjects with portable spotlights and torch lights. In 1998 he became an assistant to photographer Stefan Meyer-Bergfeld in Oldenburg, Germany, where he learned the craft of large-format landscape photography. In 2004 he entered into digital photography and since then has taken more than 10,000 longtime exposures at night.
Together they have been developing a unique brand of light painting—Light Art Performance Photography, or LAPP for short—since 2007. In September of that year, the pair founded the LAPP-PRO project and rapidly became known for their fresh approach and their influence in the global light art scene. Their pieces are the subject of interest and appreciation all over the world, and in 2008, one of their images was awarded the German national prize for scientific photography.
The LAPP-PRO project and the www.lapp-pro.de website provide the pair with a worldwide network for promoting their remarkable work—work that would be unthinkable in the context of traditional low light photography or video production.