The San Francisco Chronicle had an article about the Bay Area night photography scene in the October 8, 2011 Datebook section. The lead paragraph starts out with a loose quote from yours truly, and the piece also features night photography mentor Steve Harper, Nocturnes kingpin Tim Baskerville, and my frequent co-conspirator Troy Paiva.

Night photography was more prevalent throughout the history of photography than the article suggests, and has had major practitioners since film technology improved in the 1920′s. I wouldn’t say there is one codified style of night photography that developed in the 1970′s. There are a wide range of styles from the post-New Topographics industrial landscape to surreal light painted decay. The influence of Troy Paiva’s colored urbex work has created a somewhat codified style of night photography. This codification has occurred over the last 5 years, in parallel with the rise of the affordable digital SLR, and the prevalence of online photo sharing. That discussion is not the focus of the article, and is a can of worms for another day.