Adding Revelation

Ken Tanaka has an interesting essay on the wonderful Online Photographer blog titled What the Photographer Adds is Revelation. His point is that a photograph of a man-made object can add interest above and beyond the intent of the original designer/architect/artist if the photographer interprets the building through a different frame of reference, or different lighting.

I think his point about shooting a common-place object under different lighting is one of the key values of night photography. There are probably more daytime photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge than we'll ever need (until it starts to fall apart), but a photograph of (even) the Golden Gate Bridge at night adds a completely new perspective to an old subject.

(photo: Andy Frazer)

Some people might disagree that we already have too many night photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge. That may be so. But if I was under the gun to make an interesting photograph of something that's been done to death before, I would still opt to shoot it at night.