Night Photography by David Baldwin

In the daytime our vision and minds work together to produce generally "ordinary" views of our world.   At night our vision and perceptions are less secure, become questionable.   This allows the night photographer a great latitude in visualising and actually producing images.   In night photography colour and contrast are often very different from daytime, sometimes the complete opposite of our normal experience.  This allows us to see our world with new, almost alien eyes.   Additionally at night we can see deep into space, and the awe we feel and the grandeur we see hopefully infuses our images.

Night photography is about mystery.   One powerful justification for photography in general is that it encourages the discipline to look hard enough to see the hidden wonder all around us.   Night photography in particular rewards this discipline because of its inherent concern with difference.  Time, colour, darkness, location, technology, personal vision, solitude all combine in new and personal ways everytime the night photographer goes out.
My time as a night photographer has also given me a kind of composite mental library blending my memories of different locations and times with the starry "landscape" above.  Now if I look up at particular bright stars I can remember other occasions and accompanying moods when I photographed under those stars.   The sky has become a kind of personal diary in my head, and this website is my attempt to project at least a flavour of this outside of myself.   I hope very much that you find something of interest among the images here.