Last June I wrote a post titled “10 Essential Books for the Night Photographer’s Library,” in which I confessed my addiction to collecting photo books. Not surprisingly, the list was fairly predictable and included night photography’s greatest hits. That’s not to say I didn’t sneak in a curve ball or two––Bill Brandt’s scarce and expensive A Night In London comes to mind.
Of course, the night photography world contains more than just 10 important books, so this week I’m extending the list with 10 more. In keeping with the Apple Music theme, we’ll call this post “The Next Steps.” (Yes, there will be a “Deep Cuts” edition down the road.)
Several of these books are out of print, but most are easy enough to find on the used market, although some quite expensively, for sure. Some also can be had for just a few dollars, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth collecting. Like me, Gabe Biderman has an expansive collection of photography books, so I consulted with him when compiling this list. They are presented here in no particular order.
Day to Night, Stephen Wilkes
I have admired Stephen Wilkes’ work for a long time. The Griffin Museum of Photography near Boston exhibited his Ellis Island photographs as 40x50-inch Cibachrome prints in 2008 and left me breathless. I haven’t picked up my own copy of Day to Night yet, but have been admiring Wilkes’ growing body of work for several years. Each panoramic image is made up of many, many (up to 2,000) photographs shot over the course of 30 hours from a single stationary camera position. The images were made in both iconic urban environments and stunning natural landscapes, and tell a great story, or more often, many intertwined stories in a single image. The results are a unique and stunning way to record the passage of time––in essence, a 24-hour time lapse in a single frame.
The World at Night, Babak Tafreshi
Babak Tafreshi is an Iranian photographer and founder of the group The World at Night, a collaboration of photographers from 25 countries who are dedicated to capturing, preserving and sharing the night sky. Tafreshi has curated the images in The World at Night, which are divided into six groups:
symbols of all nations and religions embraced by the sky
UNESCO World Heritage Sites at night
the universe revealed through constellations, auroras and other wonders
images highlighting the beauty of dark skies away from light-polluted areas
celestial events, from comets to eclipses
astro-tourism destinations, such as ancient astronomical monuments and modern observatories
It’s an interesting book, full of powerful images. For an anthology representing 34 photographers from around the world it’s disappointing that there are no women included, and that the photo credits are in the back of the book rather than with the images. (Yes, I realize that there is only one book by a woman on this list. There are many contemporary women night photographers, but relatively few published ones.)
Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land, Neil Folberg
Neil Folberg is the son of legendary San Francisco gallerist Joe Folberg, and when Joe died, Neil took over the gallery and moved it to Jerusalem. The images in Celestial Nights were made primarily in the Sinai desert in Israel, Egypt and Jordan. First published by Aperture in 2001, and again by Abbeville in 2008, both editions are beautiful reproductions of Folberg’s unique night photographs, which were made between 1997 and 2000. Many of the images are composites of infrared landscape images combined with sky images made with a tracking device—which is the only way to photograph star points on film.
There is a transient and mystical quality to these photographs. They are realistic and believable, yet otherworldly. They are remarkably successful, and doubly so for being film-based composites. This one is a must-have.
Nightwatch: Painting with Light, Noel Kerns
This dense collection of work from locations across the United States covers a lot of ground with light-painted scenes that are reminiscent of but distinctly different than Troy Paiva’s Lost America style. Nightwatch is a compendium of 254 pages of night photography and light painting that encompasses subjects ranging from abandoned gas stations, motels, decommissioned military bases and decaying industrial complexes, to forgotten farmhouses and ghost towns. Noel Kerns’ work is presented with supporting commentary on the locations. It’s very reasonably priced, especially for a book of this quality and size.
Lost America: The Abandoned Roadside West, Troy Paiva
Hopefully you caught Troy Paiva’s recent presentation at our Night Photo Summit last month. His images, collected over 30 years—presented with experiences and anecdotes from when they were created—made for an entertaining and informative hour. Think of his first book as a denser version of the first half of that career, on paper instead of on Zoom. Yes, you need to pick up a copy of Lost America, the seminal work from the guy who defined (if not invented) the genre of light-painted abandonments. There are four other collection-worth volumes of Paiva’s work in print, including the most recent titles Boneyard, Junkyard Nights and Night Salvage.
Night/Shift, Lynn Saville
Lynn Saville has published three books of night(ish) photographs, beginning with Acquainted with the Night in 1997, followed by Night/Shift in 2009, then Dark City in 2015. The first book contains gritty, grainy, 35mm black and white images interspersed with selected poems. (The book title is from a Robert Frost work.) I’ve just ordered Dark City recently, but it appears to be a continuation of the twilight color work of the New York images in Night/Shift. It’s remarkable how Saville can find such quiet scenes in places as busy and bustling as Manhattan. Her work reminds me of a looser version of Jan Staller’s gorgeous book Frontier New York from 1988. In Arthur C. Danto’s introduction, he writes that Saville’s images remind him of Atget’s Paris: “She is his New York counterpart, the Atget of vanishing New York, prowling her city at the other end of the day, picking up pieces of the past in the present, just before it is swallowed by shadows.” High praise indeed.
Theaters, Hiroshi Sugimoto
For almost four decades Hiroshi Sugimoto has been photographing the interiors of theaters using a large-format camera and no lighting other than the projection of the running movie. He opens the aperture when a film begins and closes it when it ends. In the resulting images, the screen becomes a reflector that subtly brings forward the rich architectural details of these spaces. Sugimoto’s minimalist black and white images draw you in to a quiet world of contemplation, be it his famous seascapes or these theater interiors that include the classic American movie palaces of the 1920s and 30s, historic theaters in Europe or disused theaters that show the ravages of time. (Tip: Theaters is quite expensive, but the French-language version can be acquired for one-third the price. It’s all about the images anyway.)
Mont St Michel, Michael Kenna
Michael Kenna has said that he doesn’t think of himself as a night photographer, and doesn’t distinguish between daytime or nighttime image-making. Like his countryman Brandt, whose work inspired Kenna early on, Kenna’s daytime images sometimes look like night, and vice versa. No matter, his photographs are always stunning. He has published more than 30 monographs in about as many years; very few photographers have consistently produced such compelling work. Once you have acquired Night Walk and Night Work, the two books mentioned in the previous post, Mont St Michel (or the equally great titles Ratcliffe Power Station, Rouge and Venezia) should be next on your list. They all contain a significant portion of night images, and are still affordable, unlike some of Kenna’s harder to come by books.
Secret City, Jason Langer
Jason Langer worked as Michael Kenna’s assistant from 1989 to ’95, but has very much set his own course since setting out on his own. He’s published three books of his work, with Secret City being the first, as well as my favorite. Many of his images include people, something you’ll never see in a Kenna photograph! Those photos aren’t portraits, at least not in the traditional sense. His noirish images tell anonymous stories that convey universal experiences, usually on the darker side of the emotional scale. You might describe Langer’s work as haunted, or more likely haunting––a fleeting moment that could easily be missed or overlooked, but when captured by Langer’s camera, cannot be ignored. Think Edward Hopper meets Brassai and you might just conjure up something close to a Langer photograph.
The End of Night, Paul Bogard
Paul Bogard gave a passionate presentation based on The End of Night at the Night Photo Summit, and it made me want to go back and reread this delightful book. A warning in many ways, it foretells of the consequences of the loss of dark skies to light pollution, and how that is affecting all life on the planet. At the same time, it’s a love story to nature, to the Earth and to the night itself. The End of Night is not a photo book, but anyone and everyone who cares about the night should read it.
Buying Books
Where can you find these titles? Aside from Amazon and eBay (the latter tends to be overpriced for books), look at AbeBooks, a used-bookseller marketplace, especially for rare and out of print titles. PhotoEye in Santa Fe is another great resource; if you find yourself in New Mexico, it should be a bucket-list stop.
I have to warn you though, photography books are addictive. I bought three more books just doing research for this article. Writing this took me several times longer than it should have because I kept getting sucked down the rabbit hole of checking out other books and adding them to my wish list.
Note: You can see these books and many more our Bookshelf page, where you can peruse volumes that the five of us love and recommend. You can also use the links above to learn more and/or to purchase them. Many are affiliate links that reward National Parks at Night with a small commission when you use them, which helps maintain this website and enables us to provide quality content at no cost to you.
