Good Reads for 2021: 11 New Books for the Night Photographer

Interested in books about photography, night and national parks? See the National Parks at Night Bookshelf.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a book hound. I always have my eyes open for new (or old) night photography books. Over the past year I’ve written two posts about “essential” books for night photographers (“10 Essential Books for the Night Photographer’s Library” and its sequel “10 More Books to Round Out your Night Photography Library”). Most of those are classic titles, more than a few of which are out of print and hard to find.

I hope I haven’t created an impression that all good night photography books are old. In truth, this genre of photography is not just alive and well, but is thriving. In fact, Matt Hill rightfully speaks about this being “the golden age of night photography.”

Proof of that is on the shelves, with plenty of new volumes of and about night photography being published. There have been a number of recent releases of note, with three forthcoming books due later this year that you’ll be sure to want to check out.

Below you’ll find my choice of 11 contemporary night photography books that are well worth your time and money.

Monographs

A monograph is a lifetime goal for many photographers, and a great showcase for one’s imagery. Monographs can also serve as inspiration for the rest of us. With advances in on-demand printing, small niche publishers are able to produce short runs of books with specialized interests with relatively low risk.

One such publisher is America Through Time, which caters to the urban exploration crowd, with monographs that depict the buzzing energy of vast metropolises to the places that humans have left behind. They’ve released several such books with a nocturnal theme lately, by Troy Paiva, Ken Lee and Mike Cooper.

TO:KY:OO

by Liam Wong

Liam Wong is a bit of an outsider to the night photography world, but is a young man with a powerful vision. His supersaturated cyberpunk-inspired night views of Tokyo have recently been published by Thames and Huson in TO:KY:OO.

Wong is a young Scottish video game designer and art director who brings his experience to a relatively newfound love of night photography. His highly stylized images of Tokyo at night are reminiscent of Blade Runner or other science fiction dystopian worlds.

His day job took him to Tokyo at a time when he was in the process of teaching himself photography, and he applied his design sensibilities and strong sense of color to his imagery. These are not long exposures—no star trails here! The images are all about the throbbing mass of humanity that makes up one of the world’s most interesting cities. The photos in TO:KY:OO are unlike anything else I’ve seen and are definitely worth exploring.

Junkyard Nights: Haunting NorCal’s Automotive Graveyards

by Troy Paiva

Troy Paiva is a modern legend. For more than 30 years he’s been photographing all sorts of abandoned places in California, employing a style of light painting that he developed in 1989 using Vivitar flashes and colored gels. An entire generation of night photographers have been inspired by his work, initially on Flickr, his website LostAmerica.com, and later through his books. The two recently published volumes here represent books numbers 4 and 5.

Junkyard Nights is a nocturnal love letter to the ghosts of our automotive past. The images in this book were made by the light of the full moon in two old-school junkyards in California’s agricultural heartland. The accompanying text not only conveys the essence of these desolate industrial landscapes, but it also examines the place these mid-20th century cars hold in the context of 20th century design.

Night Salvage: Haunting SoCal’s Automotive Graveyards

by Troy Paiva

Like Junkyard Nights, Night Salvage is a nocturnal love letter to automotive junkyards. The images in this volume represent three collections of junk cars lost in the deserts of Southern California. As usual, the images are accompanied by amusing anecdotes of Paiva’s nocturnal adventures, as well as by informed historical notes about the cars and the locations he photographs.

Let Paiva be your guide through these derelict graveyards filled with slowly decaying cars: a classic abandoned high desert junkyard, a TV and movie prop vehicle graveyard, and a little-known art project consisting of thousands of cars resting forgotten in a remote canyon.

Abandoned Louisiana: Under a Bayou Moon

by Mike Cooper

Abandoned Louisiana: Under a Bayou Moon is a nocturnal photographic journey through the ruins of the Bayou State. Cooper proudly acknowledges the influence of Paiva on his work, and it is clearly derivative. That’s OK, as Cooper is a quick learner and has applied his skills and passion to document ruins—both obscure gems and public eyesores throughout the state.

More than 200 images reveal a side of Louisiana that is usually either overlooked or hidden from view. If you like images of light-painted abandoned sites, and have an interest in Bayou culture, then this book ought to be right up your alley.

Abandoned Southern California: The Slowing of Time

by Ken Lee

Ken Lee is a personal friend, and we’ve long admired each other’s work. It’s been a real pleasure to watch his photography evolve and to see his success over the last several years.

The quiet, empty places shown in Lee’s images tell stories of desert dreams fueled by gold, war, optimism and wealth, only to later be abandoned and left to slowly disintegrate. Abandoned Southern California: The Slowing of Time offers a different take on all kinds of lonely and abandoned places in the Southern California desert.

Ken’s second book, Abandoned Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: California Revealed, will be released later this year.

Night on Earth: Photographs by Art Wolfe

by Art Wolfe (coming October 5, 2021)

As our friend astronomer Tyler Nordgren says, “Half the park is after dark.” He’s right, but the greater truth of the matter is that half the world is after dark, and much of what goes on in the dark is mostly unseen to the human eye. There is so much that happens while most people are sleeping, and this collection of photographs is a testament to what most of us will never see. Photographer Art Wolfe traveled to every continent to explore and document the nighttime world of animals, humans and nature.

Including twilight and low light images along with true night photos, Night on Earth’s subjects are as diverse as the hustle and bustle in Morocco’s nighttime markets, Balinese fire dancers, volcanic eruptions in Iceland, penguin colonies in pre-dawn Antarctica, star trails over the Australian Outback, and street scenes in Tokyo. Wolfe is one of the preeminent photographers of his generation, and this first collection of night images from him is sure to be a worthy addition to any photographer’s library.

How-To & Reference

Collier’s Guide to Night Photography in the Great Outdoors (second edition)

by Grant Collier

Grant Collier’s how-to night photography book is a good one. It slipped largely under the radar when the first edition was published in 2015. This second edition of Collier’s Guide to Night Photography has been revised and updated and includes 50 new images. The gear section and all weblinks have been updated, and all information on post-processing is up-to-date for use with Photoshop and Lightroom. There is also new information on Photoshop plug-ins and other software that is useful for night photography, and he covers all the bases of natural light night photography.

Night Sky Photography: From First Principles to Professional Results

by Adam Woodworth

Rather than just covering the bases, Adam Woodworth has scored a home run with his first book: Night Sky Photography: From First Principles to Professional Results. Adam gave a great presentation on Milky Way panoramas at our Night Photo Summit in February, and I had just received my copy of his book the week before. I’m impressed, and will state unequivocally that this is one of the best and most up-to-date books on astro-landscape photography available.

In clear, concise language, Woodworth walks the reader through the steps to successful astro-landscape photography. Note that it’s not a complete guide to general night photography (it doesn’t cover urban night photography, and has limited information on light painting)—it’s strictly astro-landscape. He does cover stacking and tracking, with a great section on panoramas. Highly recommended.

2021 Night Sky Almanac: A Month-by-Month Guide to North America’s Skies

by Nicole Mortillaro

The 2021 Night Sky Almanac is the ideal resource for both novice and experienced sky watchers in the United States and Canada, with all of the advice, information and data that enthusiasts need to understand and enjoy the wonders of the night sky.

This in-depth guide first introduces readers to the objects in the sky—from stars to comets to globular clusters—and then takes you through the cosmic events to look out for each month in 2021, with sky maps, moon phase charts and info about the planets.

The almanac is both a comprehensive introduction to astronomy and a quick reference book for more experienced sky watchers who don’t want to miss a thing. Its compact size means it’s perfect for taking on any night photography adventure.

Inspirational

The World at Night: Spectacular Photographs of the Night Sky

by Babak Tafreshi

Bringing together the images of over 40 photographers across 25 countries, The World at Night: Spectacular Photographs of the Night Sky is a collection of images curated by The World at Night founder Babak Tafreshi.

What makes this book unique is how the images are organized. The sections include: “One People, One Sky,” which attests to the unified nature of earth and mankind; “World Heritages,” which not surprisingly features night photographs of World Heritage Sites; “Events That Shook the World,” which is about celestial events such as comets, eclipses and unusual atmospheric phenomena; “The Fragile Beauty of Darkness,” which uses gorgeous images to show the importance of preserving dark skies; and “Dark Sky Refuges,” which showcases dark-sky parks and other astro-tourism destinations.

To Know a Starry Night

by Paul Bogard (coming October 12, 2021)

Paul Bogard gave an impassioned presentation based on his earlier book, The End of Night, at our Night Photo Summit. His newest book, scheduled for publication in October, combines his lyrical writing with the night-sky photography of Beau Rogers. To Know a Starry Night explores the powerful experience of being outside under a natural starry sky––how important it is to human life, and how so many people don’t know this experience. As the night sky increasingly becomes flooded with artificial-light pollution, this poignant work intends to help us reconnect with the natural darkness of night, an experience that now, in our time, is fading from our lives.

In Conclusion

Now that the seemingly interminable pandemic is winding down in some places, and summer has arrived here in the Northern Hemisphere, everyone is looking forward to spending more time outdoors photographing and less time behind a computer, but that doesn’t mean there’s no time for books in our lives!

Whether chillaxing by the pool, or waiting at the airport for a flight to your next night photo destination, any or all of these books will make great summer reading to inform, educate and inspire you to get back out there and to seize the night.

Lance Keimig is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. He has been photographing at night for 30 years, and is the author of Night Photography and Light Painting: Finding Your Way in the Dark (Focal Press, 2015). Learn more about his images and workshops at www.thenightskye.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

The Next Steps: 10 More Books to Round Out your Night Photography Library

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.

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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.

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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:

1. symbols of all nations and religions embraced by the sky

2. UNESCO World Heritage Sites at night

3. the universe revealed through constellations, auroras and other wonders

4. images highlighting the beauty of dark skies away from light-polluted areas

5. celestial events, from comets to eclipses

6. 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.)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Lance Keimig is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. He has been photographing at night for 30 years, and is the author of Night Photography and Light Painting: Finding Your Way in the Dark (Focal Press, 2015). Learn more about his images and workshops at www.thenightskye.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

10 Essential Books for the Night Photographer's Library

One of my long-time hobbies tangential to night photography is collecting photography books, and monographs by night photographers in particular. I’m not often in a position to buy original prints of photographers’ work that I enjoy, so books are a great way to have easy access to that work.

Yes, I could look at their photographs online, but it’s a very different experience to view images on paper rather than on a screen. There’s something inherently more satisfying about holding a well-printed book in your hands and settling down in a comfortable chair in good light, and just sitting with the images. No distractions.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a student of the history of night photography, as one of my favorite topics to write about is my “Muses From the Past” series on the pioneers of the genre. Books have been my primary research tool for this project, as many of the lesser-known photographers of yore don’t have much of an internet presence!

Additionally, over the course of my years of researching the subject, I’ve accumulated quite a collection of out of print photo books by photographers both famous and obscure. I have pretty much every how-to book on night photography that’s ever been published, and a good number of biographies and autobiographies of photographers.

I have to confess that I only recently unpacked all of my photo books after having them in storage for over a year while renovating my house. I haven’t taken time to sit and look at them in quite a while. Shameful, I know––what with all of these extra months at home recently. But spend time with these old friends I have, and will again.

In this post, I’ll share some of my favorites with you, and some resources you might wish to explore should you get the chance. Here in chronological order are 10 of my favorite night photography books. Many are out of print and some are rather scarce or expensive, but some can be acquired quite reasonably.

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Paris de Nuit, by Brassai, 1932

The first book of exclusively night photographs, Paris de Nuit, was initially published in photogravure in 1932. The Hungarian painter turned photographer Brassai captured candid views of the seedy underbelly of Parisian nightlife at an extraordinary time in the city of light. The version I have was published in 1987, also as photogravure, and is much better and truer to the original than the even more recently published reprint. The next two books on this list were inspired by this one. It is a must for any night photo library.

London Night, Howard Burdekin and John Morrison, 1934

I was unaware of these two and their amazing work until a friend gave me a copy we found together at a used bookstore in San Francisco. The London Night introduction quotes the introduction to Brassai’s book, and it’s also printed in photogravure. Never reprinted, copies have recently become scarce. Another must-have.

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A Night in London, by Bill Brandt, 1938

Bill Brandt was in Paris—working as Man Ray’s assistant of all things—during the time when Brassai was photographing for Paris de Nuit. He was so inspired by Brassai’s work that he recreated one of the photographs of a Parisian streetwalker using his wife as a model. A Night in London has also never been reprinted, and copies start at about $2,000. Nope, I don’t have my own copy, but I’ve spent some time with one at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Truth be told, I prefer Burdekin and Morrison’s version of London at night.

Diesels and Dinosaurs, Steve Fitch, 1976

Perhaps the original “urban explorer,” Steve Fitch began documenting his travels in the American West at 21, but the Diesels and Dinosaurs project took root on family trips in a 1951 Buick when he was a child. Long out of print, and hard to find, this book of roadside attractions/distractions paved the way for later photographers such as Troy Paiva (Lost America).

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Photographs, Richard Misrach, 1975-1987, 1988

Richard Misrach is considered one of the most important American photographers of the second half of the 20th century, and he was one of several Bay Area photographers responsible for the explosion of the night photography scene in the 1970s and 80s. This hard-to-find paperback of his early work includes medium format black and white night images of the California desert and Stonehenge, and large format color images from Greece, Louisiana, Los Angeles and Hawaii. Photographs also marked the beginning of his decades-long “Desert Cantos” series. Misrach does not have much of an internet presence; unless you can see original prints in a gallery, books are the best way to see his work.

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Frontier New York, Jan Staller, 1988

Jan Staller’s Frontier New York collection is of night and twilight images of the industrial wastelands on the outskirts of New York, in square format images shot on color negative film in the late 1970s and early 80s. These images, along with those from the next book on the list, have influenced my own work more than anything else. I first saw both books in Steve Harper’s Night Photography class in San Francisco.

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Night Walk, Michael Kenna, 1988

The great Michael Kenna’s first book. Night Walk is one of many, making it hard to choose which one(s) to mention in a “top 10” list. Included are early 35mm images from Venice, France and his native England, especially the mills of Yorkshire and Lancashire that Brandt had photographed in the 1930s.

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Steam, Steel, and Stars, O. Winston Link, 1987, 1998

There are several books of O. Winston Link’s iconic train images made along the Norfolk and Western line from 1955-60, but Steam, Steel, and Stars concentrates on the night images, and is readily available. Originally published in 1987 and reprinted in 1998, both versions are available on the used market. I have the later version.

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Washington by Night, Volkmar Wentzel, 1992

Volkmar Wentzel’s images on Washington, D.C., were made in the late 1930s while he was working in the darkroom for National Geographic. He too had been inspired by Brassai’s Paris De Nuit, and the images in Washington by Night were originally published in a 1941 edition of National Geographic. The book wasn’t published until 1992. Affordable copies are available from online booksellers, including Amazon.

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Night Work, Michael Kenna, 2000

Kenna has published more than 30 books, but this and Night Walk are the only ones that include exclusively night photographs. Night Work is a survey of Kenna’s nocturnal images from 1978-2000, and it includes an interview with Tim Baskerville of the Nocturnes.

I could go on and on. It was difficult to exclude quite a few important works from this list. They range from personal favorites by friends and colleagues, such as Troy Paiva’s Lost America, Tom Paiva’s Industrial Night, Ken Lee’s Abandoned Southern California or William Lesch’s Expansions, as well as critically acclaimed work such as Robert Adams’ Summer Nights or Neil Folberg’s groundbreaking film/digital composites in Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land. There are so many more. Jeff Brouws’ Starlight on the Rails is a loving record of the work of many of the other mid-century train photographers aside from O. Winston Link. I covet them all.

With many of these being so rare, where can you find and buy them? Aside from Amazon and eBay (eBay tends to be overpriced for books) here are a few great stores for photography books:

• the venerable Photo Eye in Santa Fe

• Timothy Whelan Photography Fine Photographic Prints and Books in Rockport, Maine

• East Village Books in Manhattan

• Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts

• Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon

• Arcana: Books on the Arts in Culver City, California

• Green Apple Books in San Francisco (a small chain of great local bookstores where you could easily spend an afternoon)

Want to look but not buy? There are several under-appreciated but outstanding photography libraries you can visit, including:

• Photo Resource Center in Boston

• Maine Media Workshops + College in Camden

• the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin

I have to warn you though, photography books are addictive. Start with one or two of the volumes on this list, and before you know it, you’ll own most of them. When you travel to a new city, you’ll add used bookstores to the list of places you have to visit. And that’s a good thing.

Note: You can see these books and many more on a brand new page of the National Parks at Night website: our Photography Bookshelf. Here you can peruse the volumes that the five of us love and recommend. You can also find links to learn more and/or purchase all the books mentioned above.

Lance Keimig is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. He has been photographing at night for 30 years, and is the author of Night Photography and Light Painting: Finding Your Way in the Dark (Focal Press, 2015). Learn more about his images and workshops at www.thenightskye.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

The Write Stuff: Sergey Churkin and the Light Painting World Alliance

In 2011, Russian photographer Sergey Churkin founded what is now known as the Light Painting World Alliance (LPWA). Its goal is not only to unite artists who practice this niche within a niche within a niche, but also to help light writers around the globe develop their own skills as a way to elevate the quality of the art form as a whole so that it’s more globally recognized in the art world. It’s a lofty goal. And it’s one we applaud.

Since its inception, LPWA has brought light writers together in various ways, including its website, Facebook and Instagram presences, international exhibitions, award presentations, meetups, and meetings and conferences hosted throughout the world.

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Fighting in the Rain. Light writing artwork done in collaboration with Nikolay Trebukhin. Olympus E-M1, Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 lens. 5 minutes, f/22, ISO 500. © Sergey Churkin and Nikolay Trebukhin.

The group has announced its newest venture: International Light Painting Day (ILPD), which will occur on May 16—the date that UNESCO declared as the International Day of Light. “As in any social action, participation is even more important than results,” reads the ILPD website. “International Light Painting Day will attract people to our art, give them a new way of self-expression, and will make friends between participants.”

LPWA encourages night photographers everywhere in the world to participate, whether through official ILPD events, with a local photography group, or even just by sharing the art form with friends and acquaintances at personal gatherings.

Recently we were able to chat with Sergey about his own growth as a light writer, how all of this got started, where it’s going, and what to expect on May 16.

(We should note a terminology difference. What LPWA calls “light painting” is largely what we at National Parks at Night term as “light writing.” We define the former as illuminating a subject with a light source, and the latter as recording the actual light source as part of the composition. For the purposes of being consistent for our audience, we will use our terminology and definitions in this post, except when mentioning the official names of organizations and events.)

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Q: Can you tell me about your passion for light writing? How did you start doing it, and how has it affected your development as an artist?

Sergey: In my work I am constantly looking for new visual forms and new technologies. In 2008, when I first saw light graffiti, I thought it was computer graphics, and I wondered how to achieve the same effect. So I tried drawing something like it on my computer, but all my attempts were futile. That upset me. I thought, “How is it someone else can draw this, but not me?” Then I discovered that the picture I was trying to model wasn’t computer graphics—it was photography with patterns of light!

That’s when I discovered a galaxy called Light Writing. Almost at the same time, my eldest son showed me his own drawings with light.

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Relax Time. From the series “Real Life of Unreal Person.” Canon 5D Mark II with a 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. 202 seconds, f/8, ISO 200. © Sergey Churkin.

Everything came together for me. I understood this technology. I realized that in my hands was a new, powerful and versatile tool for design.

I spent nearly a year attempting to combine light writing with video, but it turned out that the specialties of drawing light impose fairly strict limits on its use in video projects. I do not like  restrictions in the art process, so I decided that photography would give me more opportunities to express myself. Since then, I paint with light.

I’m a professional video designer, so I know a lot about designing nice images. Light writing for me is another way to express my visual fantasies, with much more effective and natural execution. So, I already was a visual artist before falling into light writing. But light writing taught me to be more patient—to spend more time for planning and preconstruction of my artworks. I started to develop my own techniques and tools, which could give me limitless purposes. Thus, light writing brings the sense into my life.

Q: What are some of your favorite light writing tools?

Sergey: I prefer to use light tools like I would use real paint brushes. And I love handmade tools. Manufacturer’s tools bring comfort in making art, but also limitations of art itself. That is why I also try to develop my own techniques and my own tools.

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Portrait of Sergey's friend Vikthor Clarke, part of the series “Friends in Light.” Created with a handmade custom light brush. © Sergey Churkin.

Q: What prompted you to spread this passion by forming LPWA?

Sergey: I realized that our genre had two problems. First was low awareness, both among the ordinary public and among the art business. Most people simply do not know what light writing is. Second was the problem of quality. Too many people were doing light drawing just for funny snapshots.

After some thought, I came to the conclusion that anyone alone does not change anything. By improving my own skill, I can achieve success and recognition, but that wouldn’t resolve those problems. To promote light writing to the masses needed a collective effort. I had a little experience with creative associations for Russian TV designers and promoters in the 2000s, so I saw what a collective mind with an active nucleus can do. I figured, why not do the same for artists writing with light?

But of course, it would be ridiculous to think that all the work of making this huge Alliance since 2011 was done just by one person. It was done mostly by artists themselves. I only help them with ideas, inspiration and courage. I am happy to be friends with dozens, or even hundreds, of artists around the globe. And I am very grateful to all my light friends for their countless support, which really makes LPWA what it is.

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Dissected Guitar. Canon 5D Mark II with a 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. 19 seconds, f/13, ISO 160. © Sergey Churkin.

Q: How quickly did LPWA grow?

Sergey: Since 2011, the Alliance has grown to about 650 registered members. In fact, after 2015 I didn’t pursue more members as a goal anymore. What’s most important for me now is to inspire the community to be more active in making and learning art. The things we’ve been doing the last two years have showed me that this goal is very possible.

Now I am concentrating more on organizations, developing relationships between LPWA and museums, galleries, festivals and other cultural institutions.

Q: What’s next for LPWA—how do you hope it evolves?

Sergey: Honestly, right now I am at a crossroads regarding LPWA’s future. Eight years of effort has told me that sometimes I need to take a break, to analyze past experiences. I see how much our community has grown since 2011, I see what is going on in our industry, and I see how new trends are born and die. So I keep that all in mind.

Some of the goals of our starting years were realized successfully, and now the community requires new ones. We’d like to get regular columns in the world's largest magazines about art and photography, and over time would like to publish our own magazine, Light Painted World.

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Red Treble Clef. Image made with customized light blades. © Surgey Churkin.

We’re also working to develop close contact with manufacturers of software and light tools, because they are not necessarily light painters and don’t always know what features should be in these devices. We need fine-tuned software and new light tools for professional light writing.

We’d also like to develop close contacts with interior designers, the manufacturers of decoration accessories, and fashion designers. Light writing should be more than only photos or prints—we can use our artworks as a basis for many more goods.

And off course, a major aspiration for the near future is to get official recognition from UNESCO for our art form, in the form of May 16—International Light Painting Day!

Q: you have organized some huge collaborations of photographers working on one image. Can you talk about that?

Sergey: It’s another inspiring and powerful way to involve an audience with the light writing world, to do these massive collaborative artworks.

Our first experience like this was done in 2013 at our second LPWA worldwide exhibition in Paris, when 20 artists all together made a light writing animation on Place Concorde. Next was a massive collaboration on Plaza de la Gesta in 2014, when 34 artists made the IYoL2015 logo; and at the Dorum (Germany) LightHouse Meet-up, 24 artists created the same logo. An outstanding collaboration was made in Longhushan, China, where 13 light painters created a massive image and animation.

This is a very, very cool activity for all our artists.

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Collaboration light writing made during the LPWA Roma Meet-up 2017. Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II, Olympus M.Zuiko 7-14mm f/2.8 lens. 1.3 minutes, f/6.3, ISO 200. Click here to see all credited artists.

Q: Why do you think light writing is such an intriguing part of night photography?

Sergey: For me, all parts of night photography are intriguing. Choosing a location, waiting for the proper time, finding particular details of a scene that can make this place magic, testing camera settings and tools.

But light writing itself is an endless experience with an indeterminate end. Mostly I know what I want to draw, but I always pray for a lucky chance that could give me a moment of something incredible. Experiences like that are what really intrigue me.

Q: What is your advice for someone who wants to get started in light writing, or someone who wants to learn more about it?

Sergey: The only good advice is to start with regular tutorials, regular tools and then just copy the masters. Get your first experience—try to feel the light. Make a lot of senseless images just to understand how you can use light.

Then forget all of it. Throw everything away and start to make your own light art. That is when you start following your own way, and when you no longer copy others.

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Lion and His Guest. Made with light brush by Bernhard Rauscher. Canon 5D Mark II with a 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. 116 seconds, f/8, ISO 250. © Sergey Churkin.

Q: Tell us about Light Painting Day. What is the goal, and how can people get involved?

Sergey: International Light Painting Day is intended to give anyone—not only light artists—more motivation to learn about light painting and light writing. I really think that light writing is a much more inspiring art than more traditional drawing and painting. I would love to see light writing become a “family art.” Whole families could make this kind of art as a good and kind collaboration of father, mother and children! The best gratification for me could be if International Light Painting Day became a widely observed family celebration.

Of course, light painting is not just for May 16—we can celebrate this art form 365 days a year. So, International Light Painting Day is not for only professional photographers, but also for their friends, mates, family or even neighbors.

For more information about attending an International Light Painting Day gathering, see the official Event Programme. Sergey encourages individuals, camera clubs, and other groups and organizations to coordinate their own ILPD events as part of the global celebration. More more information, visit the ILPD webpage.

Chris Nicholson is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

A Giant Sleeps Tonight: The Night Photography World Loses a Pioneer

On August 19, the night photography community lost one of its true greats. Steve Harper was a pioneer of night photography and light painting, and taught what is thought to be the first college-level course on the subject at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.

Despite slowly losing his sight over the last ten years, and battling cancer for the last two, Steve never stopped photographing and never gave in to his illness. I was fortunate enough to spend some time with him last January, and we talked extensively about his work and how he came to night photography.

"Self—Keif’s Blanket," Sutro Bath ruins, San Francisco, 1979. This was one of Steve’s personal favorites. He held his dog’s blanket over his head in the whipping wind coming off of the Pacific and marveled at how everything in the image was made of the same stuff—the ocean, the air, the blanket, and the ghost image of Steve himself merged together, and as he said, the image “shows the universality of all things.”

For those who are unfamiliar with Steve and his work, he was one of a number of Bay Area photographers responsible for the explosion of interest in night photography in the 1970s, along with Richard Misrach, Arthur Ollman, Paul Radeke, Jerry Burchard, Hank Wessel and Steve Fitch.

Harper felt that it was important to study and learn about what other photographers had done before us. He diligently researched the history of night photography, in an era when information was much harder to come by. He taught his students about Stieglitz’s early forays into night photography at the dawn of the 20th century, along with the work of Brassai, Bill Brandt and O.Winston Link.

He also made sure to share the work and story of Jessie Tarbox Beals, a woman whose life paralleled Stieglitz’s in many regards, but who was far less fortunate and privileged. In a field with so few women, he made sure to highlight her contributions to the genre.

Over many years, Steve worked to devise exposure guidelines for different types of film, and modified black and white film development to deal with reciprocity failure and extreme scene contrast. He also experimented with different color transparency films, and color-correcting gels to better control the odd colors from the panoply of light sources in the industrial areas where we worked and took his classes. Steve was a master Cibachrome printer, and often made prints for his students.

Although Steve’s work was included in a ground-breaking exhibit of night photography at San Francisco’s Focus Gallery in 1979, and he created many iconic night images of California, he will be best remembered as a teacher and mentor. It is not an exaggeration to say that Steve Harper is single-handedly responsible for inspiring an entire generation of night photographers (myself included), who have in turn taken the torch from him and are now teaching a new generation of night photographers.

"1,2,3,4,5,9,7," Sutro Bath ruins, San Francisco, 1982. Another image from the Sutro Bath ruins near Ocean Beach in San Francisco. This was one of Steve’s favorite locations to photograph, and a place that he made sure every class visited, despite the often terrible weather. This image was made with light painting from one of his students, Kyoshi Sato.

Steve had a natural gift for teaching. His critiques were honest, straightforward and insightful. His lectures were never boring, and in the field he encouraged collaboration, camaraderie and community rather than competition. Many of his own images were made in collaboration with his students, whom he considered friends.

I was fortunate to be among the students in last few classes Steve taught before retiring in 1990. In 1988, after exhausting all of the photography courses I could find in Baltimore, one of my teachers suggested that I consider Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara (which has sadly just shuttered its doors). I ordered a catalog, but was disappointed that they did not offer a class in night photography, so I began to look elsewhere. Eventually I came across Steve’s class at the Academy of Art College, and my course was set. I moved to San Francisco and enrolled at AAC, where I took Steve’s class for three semesters in a row.

Steve took his summer classes in night and figure photography on camping trips to the Eastern Sierra, where he introduced me and many of his other students to Mono Lake and Yosemite National Park. High on Tioga Pass, a granite boulder balances precariously on a hillside above Olmsted Point that is the subject of one of his most famous photographs.

That boulder has come to be known as Steve’s Rock to legions of night photographers.  It now stands as a memorial to Steve and his work. If you happen to be passing over Tioga Pass, stop at Olmsted point, and look up the hill from the parking area. You can’t miss it.

"Steve’s Rock," Tioga Pass, Yosemite National Park, 1981. Perhaps Steve’s most iconic image, this granite boulder has forever become known as Steve’s Rock, and it has even become a pilgrimage of sorts for night photographers who travel to Yosemite.

I was also part of the last summer class that Steve took to the Eastern Sierra, and memories of that trip stayed with me over the years.

Eventually, I began to teach my own workshops there, and have done so every year since 2003. I know that Steve was proud to have inspired photographers such as Tom Paiva, Tim Baskerville and myself to take up his calling, and we all feel fortunate to have known and studied with him. Steve’s teaching and mentoring left an indelible mark on the lives of so many of his students, and he will be sorely missed.

Tim Baskerville is organizing an exhibit of Steve’s work and that of some of his students at Rayko Photo Center in San Francisco, to be scheduled sometime next year. I’ll post about it in this space when the show is announced, and hope to see you there.

"Self Asleep," 4.5 hours, 1984. Good night, Steve. You will be missed, but not forgotten.

Lance Keimig has been photographing at night for 30 years, and is the author of Night Photography and Light Painting: Finding Your Way in the Dark (Focal Press, 2015). Learn more about his images and workshops at www.thenightskye.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT