Long lights II
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All 25 photos in Nocturne
Lakes, roads and long exposures · 25 photos
Nocturne is an archive series, older than the travel albums, in which the photos are grouped by light rather than by place. Most carry no dates or coordinates, so the series has no map and no route and reads as a sequence of frames. They were taken mostly at sunset, at dusk or at night, and a few, shot in daylight, were processed in black and white or sepia so that they sit alongside the rest. The first frames show the shore of a lake among low hills during a night of fishing, then the road and the city after dark, London included.
The lakeshore
Rods on their stands, a pontoon, an angler's chair and two fishermen under a full moon, in black and white, the water smoothed by the long exposure, then the same shore in color, at dusk and in the morning haze.
Rods on the shore 
Pontoon in black and white 
A chair by the lake 
Fishermen under the moon 
Rods at dusk 
Wooden pontoon
Roads
A straight road between bare trees toward a sky lit by the sunset, hairpin bends seen from above, with a line of cars, and a car on a gravel track in a white haze.
Road into the sunset 
A road from above 
Car in the haze
The city at night
Lit buildings reflected in the Thames, and a boulevard seen from an upper floor, with red and white headlight trails in sepia tones.
The Thames at night, London, England 
City traffic at night
Next come waters at nightfall: a lake at dusk, then shores, Killiney Bay in Ireland among them, one of the few frames in the series with a known place.
Lake at dusk
A band of greenish light under heavy clouds, and poplars on the shore.
Lake at dusk
Shores
The wide bay seen from a fern-covered slope in the warm evening light, and round stones on a wave-washed shore.
Killiney Bay, Killiney, Ireland 
Stones on the shore
The four long-light frames take the city's headlight trails further. The camera moved during the exposure, and the lights of the street and the cars turned into threads of light.
Long lights
Threads of gold, white, blue and green that tangle and split toward the edges of the frame.
Long lights I 
Long lights II 
Long lights III 
Long lights IV
Toward the end, the series returns to sunset in open country. Then it moves to the light of a fire. Only one frame in this group was taken in daylight: Pâclele Mari, the mud volcanoes in Buzău County, Romania.
Vineyard at sunset
Rows of plants, vineyard stakes and a lit house in the background, under an orange sky.
Vineyard at sunset
Last light
The last sliver of sun above a line of trees, with rays fanning out under a darkening sky.
Last light
Fire
A single flame with orange tongues against a completely black background.
Fire
Pâclele Mari
A small cone of mud, with dry, cracked ground around it, under a bright sky.
Pâclele Mari mud volcanoes, Buzău, Romania
The last frames were taken at night, on wet asphalt, with a narrow aperture and long exposures, two techniques that change the way lights appear.
Wet streets
Street lamps turned into rayed stars, their light doubled in the asphalt, reflected shop windows and cars that leave nothing behind but red trails.
Street at night 
Street lamps 
Night road