Show: Images of San Francisco

Susanne Friedrich will be having a show titled Images of San Francisco beginning Thursday, March 29 at Media One (901 Battery St, Suite 220, near Vallejo St).

(photo: Susanne Friedrich)

Susanne has been part of the San Francisco night photography community for years. She promised me that some of the prints on display will be night photographs.

The reception will be Thursday, March 29 from 5:30-7:30pm. I've also been told there will be free cheese! I plan to be there, and I expect many of Susanne's Flickr fan club to be there, too.

Night Photography Workshop - San Francisco

Tim Baskerville and Adam Moore will be conducting another great night photography workshop in San Francisco, beginning this weekend. The course runs for four nights, March 30, March 31, April 1 and April 4. The first three nights include classroom lectures and slide shows, followed by evening field trips to photograph in three great nearby locations.

(Security Lights, Chrissy Field, by Andy Frazer)

I took this workshop five years ago, and I really enjoyed it. If you live anywhere near San Francisco, and if you're interested getting a jump start on night photography, I highly recommend this workshop series.

For more details, read about it here.

Darius Klabisch

Darius Klabisch seems to have taken gel-lighting at night one step further than Martin Lupton. The best I can ascertain from his website, which is written in German, Darius lives in Duisburg, Germany.

(photo: Darius Klabisch)

As Tim Baskerville of The Nocturnes noted on his blog, "[Darius'] work resembles mostly what the Bechers work would look like, if done on acid!" Well put, Tim!

Darius' work appears to be done at night with flashlights (big flashlights) and colored gels. It probably says that very clearly on his website, but I don't speak German. So I have to guess one that point. I do, however, understand the part about his camera: a Canon EOS Rebel.

Thanks to Tim Baskerville for finding this one.

Steve Harper's New Blog

Steve Harper now has a new blog about night photography. During the 1970's, Steve taught the first college-level course on night photography (at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco), and was instrumental in launching the whole night photography movement here in northern California.

(Steve and His Dog Shadow, photo by Joe Reifer)

Last summer I had the opportunity to record an interview with Steve for my night photography documentary film The Night of the Living Photographers (note: TNOTLP is no longer available on the previous site: StudentFilms.com... but I plan to re-release it on YouTube within the next few weeks). Steve was also a guest lecturere at the Mono Lake Workshop, last summer.

If you haven't already seen Steve's website, be sure to check it out. I especially like the photos of the industrial areas of San Francisco, most of which look completely different today.

Darkness Falls, Fall River, MA

Lance Keimig will be having a show of his night photography (along with watercolor paintings by Becky Haletky) at the The Gallery at the Narrows Center for the Arts, in Fall River, MA.

(photo: Lance Keimig, watercolor: Becky Haletky)

I've known Lance for six years. If I were able to get out to Massachusetts next month, I would definitely make it to this show.

Details:
March 28 to April 29
Opening Reception
Sunday, April 1, 1:00-4:00 p.m.
With acoustic jazz by None Of The Above

More information, and directions, are available here.

An Interview with Jeff Brouws

Jorg Colberg, editor of the wonderful photography blog Conscientious, has posted an interview with Jeff Brouws regarding his new book "Approaching Nowhere". In this interview, Jeff talks at length about the issues that he addresses in the book, particularly the effect on inner cities as the economic and population forces moved out towards the suburbs.

(photo: Jeff Brouws)

Jeff is known to many night photographers as the author/photographer of "Inside the Live Reptile Tent".

Night Photography Class in Boston

Lance Keimig will be teaching another of his great night photography classes at the New England School of Photography (Boston, MA) beginning April 3rd.

(photo: Lance Keimig)

Lance was one of my instructors at the Nocturnes Workshop that I took in San Francisco five years ago. He's also featured on my night photography documentary film The Night of the Living Photographers, which I have just learned has been un-hosted from it's previous video-hosting site (I guess I didn't check my film-making email account, and never paid the nominal annual fee). But, not to fear, I expect to have the revised version of the film up on YouTube by the end of the month.

You can get more details on the class here.

Andy Mattern

Andy Mattern's website has a series of great night photographs of doorways and fronts of small buildings and convenience stores (not shown here... go click on the link above)

(photo: Andy Mattern)

Andy is based in New Mexico. The series of doorways is very simple, but stunning. All of the images are taken straight-on in front of the buildings. Many of the doorways are lit with a single light, and the images are all framed in darkness. I think they successfully capture that sense of isolation and potential danger that many of us find so appealing in good night photography. I find his work appealing because this is one niche that I've been shooting for years, but not as successfully as (this) Andy.

He also has a series of daytime shots of dumpsters, another subject that I've been occasionally shooting for years.

Thanks to Joerg Colberg of Conscientious for finding this one.

Jonathan Haeber

Jonathan Heaber (who also goes by Flickr name TunnelBug) is a Richmond (CA)-based night photographer and urban explorer.

(photo by Jon Haeber)

Jon told me, "I'm a strong believer in research and proper preparation before your camera hits the ground. I think the best photos are all a matter of the location that you choose, as well as the history behind the location. It's also why networking with other photographers and urban explorers is immensely important to me.

Finding the perfect location [takes real time and effort], and it can be really hard work, at times. Following dead leads and hitting dead ends are a common disappointment in this kind of work. My purpose, as a photographer, is to capture places that have rarely, if ever, been photographed so at least there is some kind of record of their existence.

My interest in this type of photography stemmed from a college Landscape Architecture course that centered around the historical built environment of America and what it means. Eventually I'd like to use a combination of architectural photos and historical research to tell a story about the American vernacular. J.B. Jackson, Kenneth Jackson, Professor Paul Groth, and Carey McWilliams have all influenced my work, though none of them are "photographers" they are all incredible storytellers. To me the medium of storytelling matters less than the method."

There are a number of Jon's points that are worth repeating. First, is his purpose of photographing locations that have rarely been photographed in order to contribute to the historical record. The biggest influence on my photography is David Plowden. Jon's philosophy is similar to David Plowden's: Always stay one step ahead of the wrecking ball. I've found that this philosophy not only helps keep me focused on what to shoot, but it also creates a sense of urgency to go out and finish the project before it's too late. Another night photographer who has followed this mantra for over a decade is Troy Paiva, who has spent years photographing abandoned towns of the Southwest U.S.

The second interesting point that Jon makes regards the history behind the location. When viewers see a successful photograph, they not only want to keep looking at it (enough, hopefully, to purchase it), but they also want to know the story behind it. As I've been photographing some of the disappearing orchards in Santa Clara County (warning: day-time photography coming up), I've become even more interested in the stories and history behind the people who owned these orchards (many of them were Japanese-Americans who were forced to relocate to internment camps during WWII).

The last point that I find interesting is Jon's goal of telling a story about the American vernacular. Storytelling is one of key ingredients that seperates snapshots from fine art photography. It's the sense of communicating an idea or a feeling to the viewer.

Although we have a lot of common friends, I still haven't had the pleasure of shooting with Jon. Maybe this year.