The light modulator for modulating light has a light modulating element, having a medium with a particle (6) and an optical state depending on the position of the particle (6), and a particle controller (10,11,100) being arranged to enable a movement of the particle (6) to one of the positions for modulating the light. For the light modulator to have a particle (6) which can relatively easily be moved, the particle (6) has a carrier particle (81) which contributes in operation to the ability of the particle (6) to be moved and is substantially non-contributing to the optical state, and an optical particle (86) which has an optical property for contributing to the optical state, is associated with the carrier particle (81), and has a position depending on the position of the carrier particle (81).