The photographer spent the first week since the clocks went back heralding the start of five darker months in the UK, making photographic notes and observations in London at, and after, twilight
How do you approach photographing darkness? That was very much in my mind while approaching this commission. I was asked to do a series of photographic ‘notes’ and observations that documented the first week after the clocks go back. Of course it’s not the darkness I ended up photographing, but the points of light within that darkness Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Everything in photography is about light. All the choices you make technically and compositionally always start and end with light. So it feels right, inevitable even, that a series illustrating the beginning of the dark months should really end up being about the light. Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
I dread these five months of short days, where it’s dark long before 6pm. It’s hard this year not to be even more apprehensive about these months. Darkness makes the landscape of a city more threatening and edgy. This seems to dovetail with the anxiety of the particular age we’re living through. Climate change, war in Ukraine, the horror in the Middle East. These are not sunny times Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Despite the dread and the anxiety, it’s actually an uplifting task to search for the points of light that exist within and are a counterpoint to the shadows. Light is hope, light is joy, light is optimism. And to be honest, the interplay of shadow, light and shade are the things that interest me most as a photographer Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
The final image is a portrait of the new (very new, he was born last Monday less than two days after the clocks fell back) baby son of one of my dearest friends. He doesn’t yet have a name so can’t be properly captioned here, but I know of few babies more desperately wished for. Meeting him reminded me of the (somewhat overused) Leonard Cohen lyric from Anthem, ‘There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.’ Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
