Video Statement

Statement for Night Photography

Statement for “Good Night, Ocean View” Project

Inspiration

Technique

Hear about how I got started in night photography, my current work, and my inspiration in this two-minute YouTube video:

Confucius said, “Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.” I create art to inspire others to see that beauty. We expect butterflies and flowers to be pretty but beauty can also be found in unexpected places. A factory’s strong lines, a faucet’s sensuous curves, and a staircase’s repeating patterns can delight us with their aesthetic appeal if we see them with new eyes.

I scout my West Berkeley neighborhood after dark for subjects. Like a documentarian, I don’t manipulate the scene but accept it as I find it. When I’m happy with the composition and lighting, I open the shutter. Minutes later, I close it. On a computer I perform the same adjustments possible in a traditional darkroom: cropping, exposure, contrast. The unreal colors in the prints are the film’s reaction to the existing light and long exposures.

Photographing at night is like shooting a movie all on one frame. Time is compressed; movement is frozen. What’s left is stillness and quiet. With our hurried lifestyles, my work is an invitation to slow down.

My home and studio are in the West Berkeley neighborhood called Ocean View, which began—before the University arrived—as an agricultural, industrial, and commercial community. It still incorporates light industrial, manufacturing, commercial, and residential zones. This diversity of activity has led to a wide variety of potential subjects, including a marina, foundry, factories, stores, restaurants, apartments, and houses. Like many before me, I drove past these buildings without giving them much thought. They were just shapes in my peripheral vision, vague landmarks on my journeys home.

But since a central focus of my work is to reveal the beauty in everyday objects, I decided to take a closer look. As I have elsewhere, I find beauty here, too, even in the industrial sites. Strong lines and unusual shapes draw my eye. The ambiguity of purpose, content, and history of these structures arouses my curiosity. And the intersection of available light and film creates mesmerizing colors.

I’ve hardly begun this project, so be sure to look for new images at my shows and on my website.

For those interested in what keeps me going, I’ve listed some of my sources of inspiration.

The unreal colors you see in some of my images are caused by the long exposures (measured in minutes) and the interaction of film and light: moonlight or street lights. All the light is existing—I don’t add light or use filters. Any light skies are caused by the combination of the cumulative light-gathering property of film and long exposures; I capture all my night photos after dark.

I use a medium format camera, which makes negatives much larger than 35mm cameras do (see illustration).

Larger film allows for smoother tones and greater detail in the final image, especially in large prints. I scan selected images at high resolution and make the same kinds of adjustments that can be made in a traditional darkroom—exposure, contrast, color balance, and cropping.

I create archival, pigmented prints 11"x14" and smaller using a high-end photo printer. The larger, limited edition prints are made with a Lightjet, in which lasers expose archival-quality photographic paper. It is then run through darkroom chemicals, resulting in a traditional color photograph.