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Night photography

Capturing photos at night From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Night photography
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Night photography (also called nighttime photography) refers to the practice of taking photographs outdoors between dusk and dawn, when natural light is minimal or nonexistent. Recognized as a photographic genre for more than a century, it is valued for its distinctive visual atmosphere and expressive potential. This status has been reinforced by major institutional exhibitions such as Night Vision at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Night Light: A Survey of 20th Century Night Photography, organized by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in 1989, which toured nationally; both exhibitions underscored the genre’s historical and artistic significance..[1][2]

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A long-exposure image of star trails in the night sky above Mount Hood National Forest, Washington, facing north at 6,600 ft (2,000 m) above sea level

The low-light conditions night photographers work in require specialized techniques to achieve proper exposure, including long exposures—ranging from several seconds to days—higher ISO sensitivity, or artificial lighting. Advances in cameras, lenses, high-speed films, and high-sensitivity digital sensors have made it increasingly feasible to photograph at night using only available light, resulting in a growing body of nocturnal photography.[3] Software innovations have also further expanded the creative and technical possibilities of low-light photography.

The genre encompasses a wide range of subjects, including urban and rural landscapes, architecture, industrial sites, and astrophotography. In addition to its technical applications, night photography has contributed significantly to both artistic and documentary traditions since the 19th century.

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History

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Early Experiments (1839–1880s)

Night photography emerged alongside the earliest photographic processes, though initial attempts were primarily scientific rather than artistic. These early experiments focused on astronomical subjects rather than the urban or terrestrial scenes that would later characterize the genre. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre attempted to photograph the Moon on January 2, 1839, using his newly invented daguerreotype process. However, tracking errors during the extended exposure resulted in an indistinct image.[4]

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The first moon photograph by John W. Draper, 1840

The first documented successful lunar photograph was achieved by John William Draper on March 23, 1840. Working from his New York University rooftop with a 5-inch (13 cm) reflector, Draper used an exposure time of approximately 20 minutes.[5] This photograph, recognized as the first clear representation of the moon's surface, established the foundation for astrophotography. Subsequent technical developments, particularly mechanical clock drives that compensated for Earth's rotation, enabled photographers to capture increasingly detailed images of the night sky.[6][7]

Late 19th Century Developments (1870s-1900)

Technological advances in the second half of the 19th century made artistic night photography increasingly practical. The introduction of gelatin dry plate|gelatin dry plate negatives, first proposed by Richard Leach Maddox in 1871 and developed into a commercially viable process by the 1880s, significantly increased photographic sensitivity and reduced exposure times compared to earlier wet collodion methods.[8] These improvements enabled photographers to document urban environments under low-light conditions.

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**A Wet Night, Columbus Circle** by William A. Fraser

Photographers began experimenting with nocturnal subjects including gas-lit streets, moonlit architecture, and carefully staged scenes. British photographer Paul Martin's London by Gaslight series (1896) represented one of the earliest successful artistic applications of controlled illumination in night photography, subsequently influencing Alfred Stieglitz's nocturnal work.[9]

By the 1890s, night photographs began appearing in exhibitions and photographic salons, marking the medium's recognition as a legitimate artistic subject.[10] A Wet Night, Columbus Circle (c. 1897–98) by William A. Fraser exemplifies this period's achievements.

Pictorialism and the Photo-Secession (1900–1930s)

The early 20th century saw the emergence of night photography as an expressive artistic medium. Alfred Stieglitz developed innovative techniques for capturing urban scenes under low-light and adverse weather conditions, exemplified by his photograph Spring Showers (1900).[11] Following the establishment of the Photo-Secession movement in 1902, Stieglitz and his associates embraced night photography for its expressive and symbolic potential, aligning with Pictorialist objectives to elevate photography to the status of fine art.[12]

The proliferation of electric street lighting after the 1880s created new aesthetic possibilities, encouraging photographers to explore relationships between artificial illumination, natural light, and shadow in urban environments.[13][14] Despite these advances, night photography remained relatively uncommon during this period, with most practitioners creating isolated images rather than sustained bodies of work.

This approach began to change in the 1930s with Brassaï's Paris de nuit (1932), a self-published volume that brought widespread attention to night photography as a serious artistic genre.[15] Working with a tripod and slow film, Brassaï documented Parisian streets, cafés, brothels, and fog-shrouded alleys, creating atmospheric images that captured the psychological dimensions of the nocturnal city. British photographer Bill Brandt, influenced by Brassaï's work,[16] began his A Night in London project, utilizing wartime blackout conditions to photograph scenes illuminated only by moonlight and ambient sources, supplemented by newly developed flashbulbs.[17] Both photographers produced the first comprehensive bodies of night photography, establishing it as a distinct photographic genre.

Mid-Century Innovation (1940s–1950s)

The postwar period through the 1950s witnessed night photography's development as both a documentary and expressive medium, influenced by urbanization, cultural shifts, and significant technical advances. Arthur Fellig, known professionally as Weegee, developed a distinctive approach beginning in the late 1930s and continuing through the 1950s. In contrast to Brassaï's atmospheric imagery, Weegee documented New York City's nocturnal underworld of crime and violence. His flash-illuminated scenes of criminal activity and urban spectacle combined photojournalistic documentation with sensationalistic presentation, utilizing the fast sheet films and powerful flashbulbs available at the time.[18]


O. Winston Link represented another significant development in mid-century night photography, distinguished by technical ambition and nostalgic subject matter. Beginning in the late 1940s, Link photographed steam locomotives of the Norfolk and Western Railway, the last major American railroad operating steam engines in commercial service. Anticipating their obsolescence, Link undertook a comprehensive documentation project of the disappearing steam era.[19] His nighttime photographs employed elaborate multi-flash lighting arrangements requiring extensive planning and staging. Works such as Hotshot Eastbound (1956) combined technical precision with romanticized depictions of mid-century American life.[20] Link's innovations advanced the technical capabilities of flash photography and influenced subsequent night photography practice.[21]

Technical Advances of the 1950s

The 1950s brought significant technological developments that impacted night photography practice. The introduction of faster film emulsions, notably Kodak Tri-X in 1954 roll-film formats, enabled handheld photography and shorter exposure times under low-light conditions.[22] Simultaneously, improvements in artificial lighting technology, including more reliable flashbulbs and the emergence of compact electronic strobes, expanded creative and practical possibilities for night photographers, supporting increased mobility and expressive control.[23]

Expansion and Diversification (1960s–1990s)

From the 1960s through the mid-1990s, night photography evolved from a specialized practice into an established component of contemporary photographic art, embraced by diverse practitioners and artistic approaches.

Pioneering Contemporary Approaches

Richard Misrach's Night Desert series (1975–1977) marked a significant development in contemporary fine art night photography.[24] Working in the Nevada desert, Misrach employed strobe lighting to illuminate desert flora—cacti, creosote bushes, and other vegetation—against dark backgrounds, creating images that combined naturalistic documentation with surreal visual effects. The project's integration of stark desert landscapes with theatrical lighting techniques, combined with Misrach's distinctive split-tone printing process, advanced night photography toward conceptual artistic practice.[25] Critics have noted that Night Desert established atmospheric and technical approaches that influenced Misrach's subsequent large-format color work and inspired later photographers exploring nocturnal landscape photography.[26]

Steve Fitch, a colleague of Misrach,[27] contributed to the development of contemporary night photography through his systematic documentation of roadside America during the 1970s and 1980s. Working primarily in the American West, Fitch employed long exposures to capture illuminated motels, diners, and drive-in theaters against the darkness of rural landscapes.[28] His series including Diesels and Dinosaurs and Vanishing Vernacular documented the changing character of highway culture, utilizing available artificial light sources to reveal architectural details and signage.[29][30] Fitch's approach combined documentary methodology with aesthetic consideration, creating a visual archive of American roadside culture while establishing night photography as a means of cultural documentation.[31]

George Tice established night photography within fine art photography traditions through work that combined documentary precision with poetic sensibility.[32] As a master printer and formalist, Tice demonstrated exceptional tonal control in his nocturnal images of American towns and industrial subjects.[33] His photograph Petit's Mobil Station, Cherry Hill, New Jersey (1974) transforms a suburban gas station into a contemplative scene through fluorescent illumination and is now held in major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Cleveland Museum of Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.[34]

Joel Meyerowitz and Jan Staller significantly expanded night photography by pioneering the artistic use of twilight and transitional lighting. Meyerowitz, known primarily for his color street photography, explored the atmospheric possibilities of dusk in his 1978 series Cape Light, capturing the interplay of natural and artificial light along the Massachusetts coastline during the "blue hour" just after sunset.[35][36][37] Working with an 8×10 view camera, his approach emphasized the painterly qualities of ambient twilight.[38] Simultaneously, Staller's Frontier New York series (1977–1984) documented the abandoned stretches of the West Side Highway, utilizing the distinctive orange glow of sodium vapor streetlights against the fading daylight to create urban landscapes.[39][40] Staller's approach emphasized the sculptural qualities of roadside objects and urban decay, depicting infrastructure with a monumental quality through his use of twilight's transformative light.[41] Both photographers utilized twilight as a subject worthy of sustained artistic investigation, establishing new aesthetic possibilities within the liminal space between day and night.

Daidō Moriyama, a central figure in the Provoke movement, developed a distinctive style of night photography that emphasized urban disorder and visual fragmentation.[42][43] Working primarily handheld in dimly lit streets, he used high-contrast, heavily grained techniques with deliberate blur to portray nocturnal cityscapes.[44][45] Marked by harsh shadows, neon illumination, and distorted perspectives, his images departed from conventional documentary clarity in favor of subjective interpretation.[46] His approach used night photography as a vehicle for artistic expression rather than purely observational record.[47] His later *Women in the Night* series (1990s) reflected a shift toward more controlled interior scenes, contrasting with the spontaneous street photography that defined his early work.[48]

Robert Adams, long associated with the New Topographics, made a significant contribution to the night photography genre when he published Summer Nights (1985), later expanded as Summer Nights, Walking (2009).[49][50] Influential to many night photographers, including Alec Soth[51] and Todd Hido,[52] Adams’ series captured suburban scenes in Colorado during dusk and early night. Portraying trees, houses, and empty streets in soft light and deep shadow, Adams’s images explore intimacy, quietude, and the fragile beauty of everyday life.[53]

By the 1990s, British-born photographer Michael Kenna had established himself as the most commercially successful night photographer. His black-and-white landscapes were most often set between dusk and dawn in locations that included San Francisco, Japan, France, and England. His subjects included the Ford Motor Company's Rouge River plant, the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station in the East Midlands in England, and many of the Nazi concentration camps scattered across Germany, France, Belgium, Poland and Austria.

Contemporary practice

Since the late 20th century, the night photography genre has continued to develop into a broad and diverse field, shaped by major technological changes and a widening range of artistic approaches. Digital photography emerged as a viable medium with greater sensitivity and control in low light qualities.[54] The genre can now be found to include many facets including staged and cinematic tableaux, suburban narratives, street photography, astrophotography, and light painting, as well as projects focused on the nocturnal life of specific cities and landscapes. These varied practices reflect the ongoing expansion of night photography beyond its early, more isolated origins into a conceptually and aesthetically rich field included by many photographers as part of their practice.[55]

Digital age

The introduction of digital cameras in the late 20th century marked a turning point in night photography. Improvements in sensor sensitivity (ISO performance), noise reduction, and dynamic range made it possible to record scenes that were difficult or impractical to capture on film, particularly in low-light conditions. Digital systems also allowed photographers to review exposures immediately, encouraging experimentation with long exposures, color balance, and artificial lighting. These developments expanded the accessibility of night photography to a broader range of practitioners and opened new approaches such as high-ISO handheld work, light painting, and digitally composited imagery.[56][57]

Advances in image-processing software further enhanced the possibilities of night photography. A number of programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, Capture One Pro, and DxO PhotoLab enable sophisticated noise reduction, tonal adjustment, and color correction, while techniques like exposure stacking and high dynamic range (HDR) imaging became common in astrophotography and urban night scenes.[58][59] Even photographers who continue to shoot on film often rely on digital tools during scanning and post-production, making hybrid workflows a standard part of contemporary practice.[60]

In the early 21st century, film technology continued to evolve, keeping the medium relevant for night photography even as digital capabilities increased. High-speed emulsions such as Kodak T-MAX P3200—reintroduced in 2018—offered expanded creative freedom for handheld shooting in low-light conditions.[61] Slide films like Fuji Velvia and Provia were engineered to better control reciprocity failure, reducing color shifts and sensitivity loss during long exposures.[62][63] These refinements ensured that analog workflows—especially for photographers drawn to film’s distinctive tonal and color qualities—remained a significant part of night photography practice well into the digital era.

Contemporary Night Photographers

Todd Hido is an American photographer renowned for his luminous color images of suburban houses at night, devoid of people, often illuminated solely by the glow of interior lights visible through windows.[64] His work blends documentary and psychological elements, evoking a sense that “the planet on which we exist seems like unfamiliar territory; strange and bewildering.”[65] Hido typically employs long exposures and available light, producing images that balance realism and fiction. His night photographs have been widely exhibited and collected, and are frequently cited as influential within the genre.[66]

Gregory Crewdson is known for his elaborately staged and theatrical photographs depicting the iconography of everyday objects and figures within the American landscape.[67] He approaches night photography through elaborate, engineered productions that draw heavily on cinematic language. Working with large crews, film lights, and extensive set design, Crewdson constructs nocturnal tableaux depicting small-town streets, houses, and interiors with heightened dramatic tension. While technically rooted in photography, his large-format images blur the line between still photography and film production. Crewdson's work has expanded the scope of night photography by demonstrating how the medium can operate on a theatrical and narrative scale.[68][69]

In addition to Todd Hido’s and Gregory Crewdson’s approaches, contemporary night photography has expanded through other diverse artistic and technical aesthetics. Australian photographer Trent Parke has incorporated night photography into his street work, using dramatic contrast and available light to create psychologically charged urban scenes.[70] Barbara Bosworth has integrated astrophotography into her landscape photography work, highlighting the cosmic dimension of nocturnal imagery.[71] Light painting has gained visibility through the long-running projects of Troy Paiva, who photographs abandoned spaces illuminated with handheld lights during long exposures.[72] These artistic developments have been shaped in part by Lance Keimig’s photography, and particularly by his influential book Night Photography: Finding Your Way in the Dark (2010), which has become a widely used resource for photographers exploring photography at night.[73][74]

The genre has also expanded through numerous site-specific and documentary projects. Dave Jordano's Detroit Nocturne (2018) documented the city's nighttime urban landscape as a reflection of both urban change and decay.[75] Peter Ydeen's Easton Nights, inspired by George Tice,[76] presents “a narrative of Easton on one hand and the American journey, as a whole, on the other.”[77] Patrick Joust has produced an extensive body of work in Baltimore, chronicling the city's character after dark for over a decade.[78] By focusing on the night landscapes of their respective cities, these photographers illustrate how night photography has developed into a regionally grounded practice, revealing both the particularities of place while encompassing broader cultural narratives.

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Film vs Digital in Night Photography

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The choice between film and digital photography for night photography involves distinct technical and aesthetic considerations. While digital technology has largely dominated contemporary practice due to its technical advantages and cost efficiency, film continues to offer unique qualities that attract many night photographers.

Digital Advantages

  • Technical Performance: Modern digital sensors excel in low-light conditions, with full-frame cameras capable of producing acceptable images at ISO 6400, 12800, or higher. This high-ISO performance enables handheld night photography that would be impractical with film, expanding possibilities for street photography, event documentation, and candid nocturnal scenes.[79] Digital cameras also provide instant feedback through LCD review, allowing photographers to check exposure, focus, and composition immediately and make adjustments without the uncertainty of waiting for film development.[80]
  • Advanced Techniques: Digital technology enables sophisticated capture methods particularly suited to night photography, including focus stacking for sharp foregrounds and backgrounds, exposure bracketing and HDR imaging for extreme dynamic range scenes, image averaging for noise reduction in astrophotography, and live composite modes for light trails and star trails.[81] Some electronic viewfinders and live view systems can amplify available light, allowing composition and focusing in near-total darkness.[82]
  • Post-Processing Flexibility: RAW files provide extensive latitude for adjusting exposure, white balance, noise reduction, and color grading in post-production. Night photographers can recover shadow detail, manage highlights, and correct color casts from mixed lighting sources with precision unavailable in traditional darkroom processing.[83] Advanced noise reduction algorithms, both in-camera and in software, can produce clean high-ISO images that rival the quality of pushed film.[84]
  • Cost and Workflow Efficiency: Digital photography eliminates per-shot costs after the initial equipment investment, making it economical for the extensive experimentation and bracketing common in night photography.[85] Digital files can be immediately shared or distributed, and automatically record metadata including exposure settings, GPS coordinates, and timestamps—valuable for documenting locations and technical approaches.[86]

Film Advantages

  • Tonal Quality: Film, particularly in medium and large formats, continues to excel in handling transitions between light and shadow. The medium offers smoother highlight gradations and more graceful overexposure recovery compared to digital sensors, which tend to clip highlights abruptly. This characteristic is particularly valuable when photographing bright light sources such as streetlights or neon signs.[87]
  • Color Rendition: Film stocks such as Kodak Portra, Fujifilm Pro 400H, and slide films like Velvia and Provia produce distinctive color palettes that many photographers prefer for night scenes. Film often handles artificial lighting sources—including sodium vapor, LED, and fluorescent lights—with more natural color balance, requiring less post-processing correction.[88]
  • Format Accessibility: Medium and large format film systems remain significantly more affordable than equivalent digital systems while delivering exceptional image quality. Used medium format film cameras cost a fraction of digital medium format gear yet provide superior detail resolution and tonal gradation due to the larger negative size.[89]
  • Aesthetic Characteristics: Film grain exhibits an organic, three-dimensional quality that differs from digital noise patterns. High-ISO films such as Kodak T-Max 3200]] or pushed Tri-X create grain structures that many find more aesthetically pleasing than digital noise, even after software noise reduction.[90] Some photographers also appreciate the subtle color shifts and contrast changes that occur during very long exposures, creating atmospheric effects difficult to replicate digitally.[91]

Contemporary Practice

The choice between film and digital in contemporary night photography often depends on aesthetic preferences, project requirements, and workflow priorities rather than purely technical considerations. While digital's technical capabilities, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility have made it the dominant choice for most applications, film continues to attract photographers seeking its distinctive tonal qualities and deliberate working process.[92] Many contemporary practitioners employ hybrid workflows, combining film capture with digital scanning and post-production to leverage the advantages of both mediums.[93]

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Moonlight photography

Moonlight photography (capturing scenes on Earth illuminated by moonlight) greatly differs from lunar photography (capturing scenes on the Moon illuminated by direct sunlight). The Moon has an effective albedo of approximately 0.12, comparable to worn asphalt concrete. Since the Moon is essentially a dark body in direct sunlight, photographing its surface needs an exposure comparable to what a photographer would use for ordinary, mid-brightness surfaces (buildings, trees, faces, etc.) with an overcast sky.

The sunlight reflected from the full Moon onto Earth is about 1/250,000 of the brightness of direct sunlight in daytime. Since log2(250,000) = 17.93..., full-moon photography requires 18 stops more exposure than sunlight photography, for which the sunny 16 rule is a commonly used guideline.[94]

Flash photography

Flash photography is the process of using artificial lighting to illuminate an object or scene.[95] Flashes are used it is to stop a moving object in motion. Typically this is done with wireless strobes strategically placed to control the spread of light on a scene. These light have radio receivers and is triggered by a transmitter placed in the cameras hotshoe and sends a signal once the cameras shutter is pressed. Before modern DSLR cameras and electronic flashes, flashes were wired for power and trigger signal. These lights sometimes had 1-25 individual lightbulbs. These lightbulbs were only good for one-time use. After the photo they would have to be replaced.[96]

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Equipment Used by Notable Night Photographers

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A comprehensive overview of cameras, lenses, and techniques used by influential night photography practitioners.

More information Photographer, Active Period ...
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Notable exhibitions

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Notable exhibitions that have focused on Night photography include the following:

  • Bill Brandt: Shadow and Light – Museum of Modern Art , New York, 1969. Updated retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2013. Not exclusively focused on night photography but included night interiors and urban scenes.[119]
  • Night Vision – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011. Group exhibition featuring 20th-century photography made after dark.[120]
  • Troy Paiva: Lost America — Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, California, USA (April 23 – June 5, 2011).[121]
  • Peter Ydeen: Easton Nights — Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA, USA (August 2018); Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA, USA (April – June 2019); Millersville University, Sykes Gallery, Millersville, PA, USA (September – October 2020); Albright College, Freedman Gallery, Reading, PA, USA (October – November 2020); Noyes Museum Arts Garage, Atlantic City, NJ, USA (2021); AOCF58 Galleria Bruno Lisi, Rome, Italy (October 2022); Sigal Museum, Easton, PA, USA (June – August 2023).[122][123][124][125][126][127][128]
  • Jan Staller: Heavy Metal: Photographs by Jan Staller — Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York, USA (April 21 – July 29, 2018).[129]
  • Dave Jordano: Human Landscapes — Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 4 – June 9, 2024).[130]
  • Michael Kenna: Venice — A solo exhibition series featuring Kenna’s long-exposure night and twilight photographs of Venice. - Sala Parés Gallery, Barcelona, Spain (September 19 – October 19, 2024); Festival Grain d’Pixel, Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Besançon, France (September 28 – October 20, 2024); The Hulett Collection, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA (December 7, 2024 – February 15, 2025). [131][132][133]
  • Barbara Bosworth: Sun Light, Moon Shadow Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio (July 28, 2024 – March 23, 2025).[134]
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Published night photographers

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This section includes the most significant night photographers who have published books dedicated to night photography, and some of their selected works. Additional publications can be found in further reading.

  • Robert Adams – Summer nights, walking: along the Colorado front range, 1976–1982 Millerton, NY: Aperture; New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982[135]
  • Bill Brandt – A Night in London: Story of a London Night in Sixty-Four Photographs. Print book, English. London: Country Life; Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938.[136]
  • Brassaï – Paris de nuit. Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1932. .[137]
  • Todd Hido
    • Outskirts, Nazraeli, 2002. ISBN 1-59005-028-2
    • House Hunting, Nazraeli, 2001. ISBN 978-3923922963.
    • Bright Black World, Nazraeli Press, 2018. ISBN 9781590055052 WorldCat
  • Peter Hujar
  • Lance Keimig – Night Photography, Finding Your Way In The Dark, Focal, 2010. ISBN 978-0-240-81258-8
  • Michael Kenna
  • O. Winston Link – The Last Steam Railroad in America, Harry Abrams, 1995. ISBN 0-8109-3575-9
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Gallery

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A London taxi turning outside the railway station at Sutton, London
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The Singapore skyline at night
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An aerial photograph of Los Angeles County at night
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Mariehamn, a capital of Åland, at night

See also

References

Further reading

External links

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