Photo Essay Inspiration - Lynn Saville

        Lynn Saville is an American photographer born in 1950. As noticed below in just three photos, she is most well known for her nighttime urban landscape photographs. Despite only being a semester into my first photography class, I understand the difficult nature of taking pictures at night. Between low/high light situations, determining ISO settings, and producing visually interesting images, a task seen tricky during the day then becomes a whole different understanding at night. Quoted in a few newspaper pieces, Saville describes producing nighttime landscapes as a way to depict colors and shadows that otherwise wouldn't appear in daytime landscapes. Below are a few of my favorites. 

Moon Over Brooklyn, Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York

        The first photograph that caught my eye in Saville's most recent work was this shot above Brooklyn. Interestingly, I like how she titled the work after the moon, although I think that the moon plays a very little role. If anything, I first thought it was a street light. What I enjoy most about this shot is that she framed a section of Brooklyn that didn't have any direct light to the camera allowing her to take a longer exposure and make the lights from within windows stand out more. If I could, I would ask her at what time she took this, but I would assume it was pretty dark and the sky only began to brighten due to the long exposure. Even more so, I love the spot in which she set up her camera. From atop of the train tracks with the yellow tinted light, I immediately feel like I am in the scene looking over this block. Lastly, I also enjoy the focus on both the close steel above and the street and building below, it makes it feel less like an image and more like an scene I am in. 

Dark City Series

Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, New York

        These next two images came out of Saville's Dark City Series. First, featured above is Saville's image of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. What really caught my attention in this one was the detail in the sky and surrounding environment. Again, shot in really low light, Saville's ability to produce a nighttime landscape that is full of detail and shadows that are not shown during the day is beautiful. Inspired by her work, I want to continue looking for environments that provide low light but are open to providing extreme detail with a longer exposure. In addition, a lot of her work revolves around urbanization, whether it be buildings, train tracks, streets, apartments, or run down factories. The subject pairs incredibly well with nighttime photography in my opinion because frankly I would find these same locations to be boring in full light. Overall, I think this, as shown in her own responses to her work, remains a main theme of hers; to provide a new perspective of an untraditional and unappreciated landscape. 

Houston Parking Lot, Houston TX

            Lastly, and easily one my favorites, the above captured image of a parking garage in Houston TX. Again exposed at night building a beautiful nighttime landscape, what I enjoy most about this image is the different shades of blue coming from the LED lights within the garage. What I love about photographing at night is capturing light that looks one way but the camera interprets and builds with other surrounding light in another way. I wish I knew technically what is going on within the camera, but again capturing these different shades of blue make the image in my opinion. In addition, usually Saville's images have a lighter sky, but with a lot more light in the frame I believe exposure time was dropped a lot, not allowing the sky to be fully exposed. However, I think that again without a fully exposed sky, it adds a lot more than if it was there. To explain, the top lights almost add a surreal feel, in my opinion adding to the idea of an urban landscape rather than that of nature. Taking away the detail and light in the sky allow me to focus on the lighting within the garage a lot more.