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Janesville photographer has works in calendar

Photo

Submitted photo

One of two photos by Janesville photographer Mark Jenson that appears in TRACTOR—The Art of the Machine, a 2012 calendar.

JANESVILLE — More than once, police have taken an interest in Mark Jenson as he cavorted at night dressed in black from head to toe.

Rock County, Janesville and Dane County cops have stopped and questioned Jenson. When they find out what he's doing, they shake their heads. Some say he's wasting his time.

Jenson thinks otherwise.

"It's a beautiful, fun art," he said.

In the darkness, Jenson does light painting, a form of photography.

"Once I find a spot I can shoot at, I get completely lost in the work. Time disappears,'' Jenson said.

Two of Jenson's images appear in TRACTOR—The Art of the Machine, a 2012 calendar published by Octane Press. The pieces are his first nationally published works, he said.

Jenson, 35, became a shutterbug in 4-H while in grade school and did photography for his high school yearbook. After earning an associate degree in photography at Madison Area Technical College, he worked as a free-lance commercial photographer for seven years in Milwaukee and Dodgeville.

He worked at Land's End with a photographer who gave him the idea for light painting.

"I started thinking, if the camera never sees enough light on a black pair of pants that won't show up in the picture, I could light it walking around,'' Jenson said.

He was right.

Jenson dresses in black boots, pants, shirt, hat, gloves and a facial mosquito net. Using flashlights of varying size and power, he creates an image in the middle of the night.

One shot can take all night, he said.

"I open the shutter and am moving slowly around with a flashlight. The exposure is 30 seconds to an hour. So the shutter opens and stays open until I feel I have the light image painted right. Then I'll close the shutter,'' he said.

Jenson believes he's among only a handful of people in America making art in the dark the way he does.

Lee Klancher, owner of Octane Press, found Jenson through word of mouth. After expressing an interest in publishing some of Jenson's images, Jenson sent him 15.

Klancher picked two—an International Harvester Farmall 460 painted with light and a 1917 Advance Rumely steam engine light-painted at Thresherman's Park near Edgerton during a full moon.

Jenson will receive a percentage of calendar sales.

After years of trial and error, Jenson said his creative photography idea is starting to pay off.

Jenson's goal is to get back into photography 100 percent. Meanwhile, with the economy the way it is, he said he would continue to work his full-time shipping job to support his family.

"I miss the creativity immensely," he said. "Light painting is my madness."