We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Edgar Machuca. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Edgar below.

Edgar , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

My art has very little or nothing to do with the underserved in it of itself BUT! I am able to utilize it in a way where it benefits the underserved.
Since intention is everything having to do with purpose, in a sense any tool or talent can potentially be used to serve others. This art just happens to be my tool for serving a greater purpose. There’s a really good quote that says “Serving is the supreme art”

A few years ago some friends and I began a mutual aid charity group to serve the underserved communities here in LA, in San Diego and a number of refugee shelters and encampments in Tijuana Mexico.. We redistribute clothes, toys and essentially any items or goods that become needed in the number of locations we serve. For example our las donation drop was a few truckloads of toys that went to the biggest shelter in Mexico which is located in Tijuana just 10 minutes from the border; Before that we gathered a bunch of camping tents and canopies for a Haitian encampment in Tijuana that had received a huge influx of refugees unexpectedly.
In between these large charity drives we regularly support non profits that serve low income or at risk communities here in LA and in San Diego. We stay busy pretty much all year depending where necessities pop up. I estimate we’ve repurposed over 20 tons of clothing alone, since that’s what we receive most. Its a whole from rich to the poor thing.

So considering I’ve been doing mutual aid for a number of years, it just seemed natural to offer my art as a conduit for fundraising. Now every so often i put out paid lightpainting events where people can pay to sign up and learn how to lightpaint or simply donate to the cause. Luckily we’ve been successful enough with these events that were able to fundraise a large percentage of what we need to complete the donation goal. Both of which bring me great joy.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi im Edgar. Im a lightpainter.

I use it as a single word cause to us its a noun and a title.
A long time ago i had bought my first photo camera from Best Buy, on black friday, with like 3 months worth of my pay. A few years after using it and getting comfortable with the settings, i wanted to find my style or my thing, like my signature look or craft or anything that’d make me distinct, since the biggest reason people fall out of love with photography or are discouraged from getting into it is that there’s too many people doing it or that they’re intimidated by the pros or even that everything has already been shot. Comparison is the killer of joy by the way, you should never compare anyone’s vision to yours. Luckily i found my niche before any of the discouraging feelings had a chance to creep in.
I had a friend Danny boys his name. He one day mentioned a technique he wanted to try that had to do with some long exposure thing i’d never even heard of. Curious to know what that was, he showed me some internet photos on his phone. That’s basically all it took. That same night we went to some dark sketchy tunnel with all our expensive/precious gear to try this new thing he’d found. He showed me how to setup my camera in the right settings and then he walked deep into this dark tunnel and began spinning some fire thing that made a lot of sparks (steel wool). It blew my mind so much that i’m still doing it to this day about 9 years later. I’m still blown.

Light Painting is a form of long exposure photography that also entails painting with Light. (flashlights)
If that sounds confusing, its cause it is. Let me explain in the simplest terms in can muster. A camera has an eye lid/Shutter same as us. That eye lid/Shutter can be manipulated to stay open for however long you want. That’s what we do in long exposure photos, we tell the camera to keep it’s shutter/eye lid open for however long were painting.
The painting part is a little more difficult to explain, Cameras have something called a sensor. That’s what’s behind the eye lid/shutter. The sensor writes down or records everything from the moment that shutter opens up until it closes. So within that time we tell the shutter to stay open, we use our flashlights and special tools to record literally anything it is we can think of and create. In a sense the sensor in that camera becomes a canvas for our paintings. But! we have to do it all in complete darkness and have no sense of what it looks like until the camera clicks the shutter closed.
I hope that cleared it up or confused you even more. Either way, Its easier understood when seen. Its such a strange niche artform that its really difficult to explain but crazy easy to visually enjoy. Its a mix of photography, spatial memory movement and interpretive dancing sort of. Most of the time its just a dude waving around a flashlight in the dark like a light saber or flailing his arms about like he’s trying to swat away a bee in the middle of the night. There’s a lot or coordination that’s needed, science that has to be figured, physical ability that is required, photography expertise that needs to be had, and a whole lot of fear of the dark that needs to be gotten rid of.

Once after i was able to serve my 10,000 hours to become a professional at it, i was able to display my art in a number of galleries and also sell a bunch of pieces. I was even able to sell a few pieces in one of my group’s charity art auctions. I think out of all of e’m, that was my proudest moment.
Besides the galleries and sales, a few friends of mine including Danny boy teamed up to create a group account dedicated specifically to grow the popularity of the art and further expose a greater audience to this super niche artform that was still in its infancy. We created and Instagram account by the name of @ill.lumen.nation
We joined the huge meet up community on Instagram and held monthly light painting sessions completely free for whatever photographers wanted to expand their skillset. At its largest we hosted over 60 photographers in a single session. We would then feature their captures on our page. We hosted hundreds of photographers during its lifespan, we created many new lightpainters and garnered world wide recognition from other light painting groups around the world.
Following this success, I myself was inducted into the light Painting World Alliance which is a Unesco Partner.
The group also began to get job offers from photography schools and an offer from Porsche to shoot the new Taycan as a promotional campaign.
Being able to be a pioneer and innovator in this strange and little know artform was definitely the biggest boost for me. I think expanding the possibilities of a new avenue of art is definitely the most intimidating and rewarding part of it all. From the early painter’s efforts sprouted many companies that created tons of products specific for this art. New flashlights were invented with the sole purpose of helping dudes like me fumble around in the dark more effectively. Its wild what a bunch of night owl photographers can spark by just relentlessly waving lights around.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think there’s never an actual rational reason why someone would start their art. Like you cant explain to someone whose left brained why the right side of ours does the thing its drawn to. Art isn’t something rational, its an emotional expression physicalized is the best way i can describe it. The only thing that changes is the medium and the tools.
Personally I got into my art cause i wanted to make movies, but didn’t have the connections, money or the equipment to do it, So i found an outlet that allowed me to tell a story with simple and cheap tools. I was able to create a story or make visuals completely alone. It gave me a way to get out some of the things in my head that i otherwise would’ve had to surrender to the lack of expressive avenues.
Being an artist is like having a condition that can drive your life’s path and make you incredibly happy and wealthy or completely miserable and broke. Usually depending on your ability to garner attention and perfect it. Art is a compulsion. The precise type of art is dictated by what you’re exposed to, what tools you have at your disposal, what physical or mental abilities come natural to you and the emotional state that’s most natural to you. I think everything after that is just infinite probabilities.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Think the biggest lesson that came from my art is that you don’t have to be successful, the greatest, or the biggest to love what you do. 2020 really took a toll on my art. I suddenly wasn’t able to gather people for my sessions. The job offers completely stopped and i had to once again go light painting alone. Luckily it allowed me to rediscover why i fell for it in the first place. There was no pressure, no expectations, i wasn’t trying to impress anyone and it didn’t matter if the painting never came out right. It once again became a form of therapy and not a job or responsibility. The joy of it came back.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @machucapictures
• Other: The group page on Instagram is @ill.lumen.nation