City street at night with a lit orange sculpture between towers

Photography series · Street

Under the Lights

For: City magazine
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Scope: Photography
Published: 23:30:00 26/08/17

A city after dusk, photographed beneath towers and one orange sculpture that lights the whole street. The evening unfolds through passing cars, lit windows and quiet exchanges at the edge of the square, where the smallest moments hold.

After the offices close

I photograph cities from the edges, and the edges are best once it is dark. The sculpture is the only frame from that evening where I stepped into the middle of the road; the rest are from doorways, bus shelters and the steps of a bank.

A city at night is a set of light sources and the people who move between them. The trick is to expose for the lights and let the people go dark, so that they become shapes, and the shapes become the story.

White ribbed facade of a modern building at dusk — The museum two streets on, lit from inside at the same hour. Photograph by Joel Ambass.

Low angle view of a glass tower's angular facades against a pale sky — The tower above the square, from the bank steps. Photograph by Fer Troulik.

By day the city is a place. By night it is a diagram of where the light is.

Looking up into an ornate stone arch and its coffered ceiling — The gateway to the old town, where the night walk ended. Photograph by Marcos Pena Jr.

The kit

A 35 at f/1.4, ISO 3200, no tripod, no flash; the sculpture is bright enough to read by. The blur in some of the frames is people, not the camera, and it stays.

After the offices close

The kit

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