Ambroise Tézenas – Beijing, theatre of the people
©Ambroise Tezenas
These past couple of weeks, I have been working with teenagers at a photography day camp called f/start, with fellow photographer friends Peter Berra and Kate Hutchinson. Teaching the basics of photography and thinking and treating photography in a simpler manner, has brought me to appreciate certain styles of photography even more. Night photography is one of them.
Shooting at night requires just a little more dedication in the sense that your lugging around a tripod (something that I’m never overjoyed about when I have to) and you need quite a lot more patience – No snap and run here! Night photography is pretty awesome because the photographer is letting the light live, leaving it breathe and come alive. The photographer setting up for the shot does see some nuances of the scene but it’s all about predicting the exact falling of light – this always leaves surprises, which is fun for a medium that can get very technical. The really interesting thing with night photography is that the areas and scenes photographed seem to take on their own space, owning it without the disruption of the bustling of the everyday.
This week is a look at photographers who have made night photography a style of their own and an intriguing way of seeing. The image above is from Parisian photographer Ambroise Tézenas and the series Beijing, theatre of the people contains quite a few night shots. It seems fitting to have done a lot of his work at night considering that the project is a look at Beijing’s ever-growing city that unfortunately is destroying the traditional housing and pushing people out of the city center. Nuance here is everything and with the absence of natural light, the images evoke a lurking feeling of abandonment.
About Aislinn
Aislinn Leggett is a Montreal-based photographer. You can learn more about her work on her website and on her personal blog. You can also follow her Twitter @aislinnleggett and on Facebook.
