Night Time in Color

In the realms of night photography I have approached this essay using color to add an element of mood and uniqueness. I am not a painter. I am a photographer without a tangible palette to mix. I have been hard pressed to create a controlled approach within the academic guidelines of Itten or blend the color wheel, coaxing each hue to rest on a canvas in harmony.

There is color in the night. The moon, the streetlights, car lights and shop windows all contribute to a world that is parallel to the day time. Streets and sidewalks are golden in color, there is a luminosity and surreal-ness as streetlights explode with energy and color.

This essay gives the viewer a glimpse of a world that is at times vacant of any human contact and at other times it seems we are all there.

Street scenes come to life in extreme weather, the yellow of a fire hydrant shines like a beacon in the night with its yellow giving the viewer direction amongst the dancing reds on the slippery streets. Another image depicts a dozen streetlights exploding with light, creating a surreal marmalade scene of yellows, oranges and gold.

There is a journey within this essay, a story about a street in a small town and the mysteries of darkness, color contributes but does not dominate, no heavy saturated colors, there is contrast, lots of black yet no natural white light, but for the moon and stars it is all artificial, its winter with winter storms, yet there is contrast, warm colors of yellows, oranges and sidewalks and roads of gold.

This story is a challenge to the viewer’s perception of what they are seeing and what has been captured in these minutes-long exposures. In one image there is a map to help “get around”. Notice the blue on the map, on the tree and reflections. Such a small amount of color yet it looks so big and influences the composition.

In another image we see the Thai Siam illuminating on drivers streaking by, too busy getting from “here to there” to observe that they are driving on streets of gold.

This has been a small window into the night, one street, one small town.