Illuminating Lyon with the Festival of Lights – Instagram – 2014
Oh, how I would’ve loved to of been here, every year at the beginning of December, the Fête des Lumières (Festival of Lights) takes place in the French city of Lyon (@villedelyon), illuminating the city’s parks and building facades with 75 light installations set to music. The festival now attracts huge crowds from all over the world, but began as a Lyonnaise tradition. When plans to unveil a new religious statue in 1852 were thwarted by bad weather, residents placed candles in jars on windowsills as a tribute.
Lyon’s inhabitants still decorate their windows today, but lighting techniques have somewhat advanced since the 19th century. The festival spans four days, culminating on December 8—and each year sees different themes by featured artists and performers.
“It’s a really important event for Lyon,” says local Instagrammer Lucie Malbéqui (@clotildeboisrenard), who uses light and shadow to inspire her Instagram photos. “I think light is one of the most important thing in life, it creates atmospheres: our moods, our sensations are closely related to light.”
“It smells of chestnuts and mulled wine,” adds Lyonnaise Instagrammer Guénaëlle Steinberger (@_guen). “It’s like a taste of Christmas! Since it’s a religious event, the ambiance is very serene and peaceful.” She adds that some of the best spots to view the festival include Place Saint Jean and its cathedral, Place des Terreaux, Place Bellecour, Place des Jacobins and Place Louis Pradel.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
