2011 - The Nocturnes 20th Anniversary Year

TTTTTTThe Nocturnes . . . by the numbers
1981	Night Light: Five Visions - an early group show of five Night Photographers, including artists Steve Harper and Tim Baskerville. 2006 marked the 25th anniversary of this exhibit at 1469 Pacific Gallery in San Francisco. One can view this blossoming of the soon-to-be "hyperactive" Bay area NPy scene and the launch of MTV in the same year as coincidence - or maybe, just maybe . . .	'51 Chevy, Burlingame CA, circa 1979 by Tim Baskerville
1991	The Nocturnes - a group show of ten Bay Area Night Photographers, curated by our own Tim Baskerville, including artists Steve Harper, Lance Keimig, and Tom Paiva. The year 2011 marks the 20th anniversary of the original exhibit at Gallery Sanchez in San Francisco.
1992- 1996	In these years, The Nocturnes hosted various full moon gatherings and exhibits of Night Photography, as we migrated toward "Phase Two" of The Nocturnes Night Photography Group (see next entry below).
1996	The Nocturnes Web site launched, to critical acclaim - prior to our arrival, Yahoo had NO Night Photography listings - or even a category for that - it all started here! The year 2006 marked the 10th anniversary of that original Web site.	"No other medium so advances art's most fervent desire - to attain a fourth dimension." -Steve Harper, 1981 (from an early exhibit of Night Photography at 1469 Gallery, San Francisco)
1998	*Launch of The Nocturnes Workshop Series,* at the old RayKo Photo Center at Sixth and Folsom in San Francisco. Thanks to Lance Keimig and Stuart Kogod!**
2000	The Nocturnes move an expanded program of Workshops and Courses to Fort Mason, the Presidio, and envirions, as well as a ten-week course to UC Berkeley Extension.	Tent, Death Valley by Steve Harper
2000	This year marked the beginning of our online exhibitions of Night Photography from across the Web, and across the world. As of December 2010, we had sponsored 23 of these thought-provoking shows - including six biennials.
2001	Angel Island Photo Camp inaugurated - held in the beginning of "Indian Summer" each year in the San Francisco Bay Area - actually on an island in the BAY!
2001	Night Talk, the Message Board of The Nocturnes was launched in this year. 2006 marked 5 years of community-based conversation re: Night Photography, as well as other important topics! This once-poplular forum for NPrs gave way to Spammers and The Nocturnes Night Photography Blog and various Flickr groups around 2006.	"Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it You play the guitar on that MTV That ain't workin' that's the way you do it Get a camera - do Night Photography . . . " (with apologies to Dire Straits!)
2001	In this year, we instituted our popular Full Moon Night Photography Workshops in Death Valley, one of our favorite places - a "holy place" where Steve Harper used to take his students in the 1980s. The year 2001 also marked the start of our Photographic Tours to the West of Ireland - a place where Tim, with his unique ties to that part of the country, has travelled to and photographed for over 25 years!
2003	Our Annual "Studio Nocturne" event, held at Fort Mason in San Francisco was inaugurated in this year. Part of SF Open Studios, it draws some thousand-plus art lovers over the course of a weekend to view, explore, and understand . . . Night Photography.
2004	Our first trek to Joshua Tree National Park for a Full Moon Night Photography Workshop (another first!). A scary, sacred, surreal place we've always wanted to visit and photograph - we were not disappointed. U.C. Santa Cruz Extension picked up the course and again we traveled south, in October 2007
2006	Moving our operations from San Francisco (for many, the center of the NPy universe!) to the extreme north hinterlands of the San Francisco estuary (Mare Island, to be exact) was not an easy undertaking. But, in the two years since the relocation we have have expanded our programs to include private tutoring, our semiannual AlumnNight events, and other offerings "on-island."
2006	In a collaboration with thenightskye.com, we offered two programs in 2006 - one, to the West of Ireland, and the other in the Eastern Sierra, as part of festivities celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the founding of The Nocturnes. The well-attended (some 40 NPrs) Night Photography Conference at Mono Lake was a huge success, and honoring the man who, in a sense, brought brought much of this about - the legendary NPr / educator, Steve Harper.
2006	The Nocturnes Night photography Blog is launched in August of 2006. The purpose of the Blog is to manage the many newsworthy items regarding (or not . . . ) Night Photography (NPy) which we uncover or happen onto, to introduce news items (and people!) of note that might not readily "fit" into the day-to-day information workflow of The Nocturnes Web site, and to broaden our scope to matters of community, politics, the environment, spirituality, and art in general.
2007	Encouraged by the success of our Annual AlumNight events (as evidenced by return visits) on Mare Island, in 2007 we expanded the program to twice-yearly happenings - one in the dark nights of winter and a second occurring during the "high season" for NPy (at least here in the SF BAy area) - usually in October.
2007	Responding to requests, in 2007 we initiated a Tutoring / Mentoring program of Private Instruction in Night Photography, tailored to the individual's needs. Part of the reasoning behind this, had to do with the quantum shift in the Photography World - from film-based photography to digital. Recognizing a need for digital instruction, (including the correlation between film and digtal media) 'geared' to the advanced amateur, who might have years of experience with film cameras, but is treading into new territory with digital.
2008	"Reformed Nocturne" Lance Keimig launched a HUGE exhibit of Contemporary NPy at Three Columns Gallery at Harvard in this year. Affectionately known as "D2," it featured Bay Area Nocturnes Tim Baskerville, Mark Jaremko, Tom Paiva, Steve Harper, Andy Frazer, Susanne Friedrich, Troy Paiva, Joe Reifer, plus many of "the usual suspects" from across the World Wide Web. For current news of the travelling exhibit, see www.darknessdarkness.com
2008	Tim Baskerville, Founder/Director of The Nocturnes Night Photography Group, gathered together a few "repeat offenders" (Joe Reifer, Denise Fuson, Sherry Glassman, Mark Jaremko, John Vias, and Charity Vargas) to explore, interpret, and reveal the seldom-seen nocturnal beauty of Berkeley, CA and neighboring East Bay locales, in the 2008 exhibit: Nocturnes . . . in Berkeley?
2010	The Panocturnists - new name, new show, a Flickr group, AND a new Web site - www.thepanocturnists.com. The show differed quite a bit from our previous online exhibitions, in that this one has its own domain and is designed to become a separate, self-sustaining site - a resource for Panocturnists world-wide, and those who love Panoramic NPy - providing much the same community-based focus and support as The Nocturnes Night Photography group and Web site has since 1991.
2010	It was with great pleasure, not to mention civic pride, that we announced Tim Baskerville's "Jury Duty" with the San Francisco Art Commission and Photo Alliance for their exhibit, "Night/Light: Bay Area Photographers Take Aim After Dark." Tim acted as a Juror, along with Aimee Le Duc, Gallery Manager, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery; and Thom Sempere, Executive Director, PhotoAlliance. Read all about the exhibit here - and read Tim's statement for the show here.
2010	Our Sixth Biennial, The Nocturnes: 20 / Ten marked a bit of a departure from the format used for previous biennials and indeed all our online shows. The final selections by the Jurors was limited to Twenty pieces by Ten artists - "Twenty/Ten" - two (2) pieces by each artist. We think this made for a "tighter" presentation of mysterious, riveting nocturnal imagery and that all enjoyed it!	82A1FC " It was twenty years ago, today. . . " (Lennon/McCartney )
2011	This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the founding of The Nocturnes Night Photography Group! Described alternatively as a "collective," "a force for change," and as "for-profit in name only," we believe it has stood the test of time, evolving (in an almost organic manner) yet remaining true to its original ethos. The work of some Night Photographers has also been described as "done in The Nocturnes' style!" Re-visit the Web site often in 2011, as many celebrations of TheNocturnes@20 take place!	TheNocturnes@20 Find out more about the year-long schedule of events surrounding our 20th - here.
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