Celebrity Lighting Designer Spotlights New Book

NEW YORK, April 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Bentley Meeker has lighted celebrity weddings for Chelsea Clinton, Robert De Niro, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Joel, Liza Minnelli, Melissa Rivers, and Eddie Murphy, as well as thousands of events for corporations, fashion designer runways, television and movie premieres, concerts, prominent hotels, and philanthropic functions. His award-winning company, Bentley Meeker Lighting and Staging (www.BentleyMeeker.com), is one of the nation's largest and most prominent lighting designers and is celebrating 20 years of serving Hollywood's elite, Hampton's premiere socialites, and New York City's movers and shakers. He is also a published author.

His debut coffee table book, Light X Design: 20 Years of Lighting was released this week by Glitterati Publishing. With over 200 photos, this oversized, glossy book colorfully and artfully captures a body of lighting design work that continues to glow.

"Light for me has always been and is, first, a spiritual force," writes Bentley in the preface of his book.  "In my beginning to be able to see light, slowly, my awareness began to develop as to how magical a medium light actually is and what it can create, not only in a theater but in the world.  This book is my attempt to demonstrate that power of light. Once a light gets turned on, it is a different thing entirely."

"Creating with Bentley is a brainstorming, synergistic experience," says Preston Bailey, bestselling author and premier event designer whose work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Vogue, Oprah, and on the Today Show. "We build on each other's creative ideas and, usually, we end up with a plan that is unique and distinctive."

The settings Bentley creates range from a dreamy wintry wonderland of white and blue for a wedding; a concert stage ablaze in vivid purples and reds; a sunset effect with oversized lanterns glowing amber in a tent; or an enchanted forest created by projecting a pattern of leaves and branches with a slowly rotating spotlight fitted with a gobo cut to resemble foliage.

Bentley, recently featured in the New York Times, has also lighted events for Victoria's Secret, Sports Illustrated and Oprah.  Modern Bride named Bentley a "Top 25 Trendsetter."  The New York Daily News recognized him as one of fashion's "50 Most Powerful."  The Knot just named him a 2011 "Best Pick" for weddings.

Bentley Meeker is represented by Planned Television Arts www.plannedtvarts.com

SOURCE Planned Television Arts