Artwork Crepuscule, 2003-2006

All of the work in the on going series Crepuscule is photographed at night using available ambient light. It is under cover of darkness that I am able to document locations where the natural landscape is illuminated by artificial light from various sources. These locations exist primarily in areas of contained, sparse, or fringe development, where the boundary between the natural landscape and human settlement is fraught with tension.
Artificial light extends beyond the physical boundaries of development; as such, it becomes a precursor to impending incursions into the surrounding landscape. Thus the interaction of artificial light and the landscape within its range of illumination serves as something of an indicator of future activity.
The crepuscule images have an “uncanny” presence to them, in the Freudian sense of the word as unsettlingly familiar. They are an attempt to see the strange world we create but fail to perceive because of its familiarity. The landscape beyond the wash of street lamps, buildings and car headlights has come to exist as a backdrop, registering in our minds only as “tree”, “thicket” or “field”. The relative darkness of these areas is left unexplored for its lack of interest. We are creating a world where darkness is becoming a misnomer, and twilight hangs over us like an uneasy blanket of sleep.
As these areas are illuminated, so the call goes out; they are defined, claimed, surveyed, sub-divided and recreated in the image of the beholder, a re-imagining of terrestrial space.