Larrie Thomson (Canada)
Larrie Thomson, who has described himself as: "..
totally, 100% nocturnal," lives in Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada. He began night photography in 1999 and has since created
a large body of work during road trips to rural areas of Canada
and the US. His work has been featured in magazines and on
Canada's National Public Broadcasting website.
"We spend most of our lives kidding ourselves that we
will live forever. When faced with our own mortality, we default
to hoping that a bit of what we have created will live on
for future generations. But eventually even what we’ve
left behind no longer has a place or purpose. Is our fascination
with derelict places somehow a desire to understand what happens
when even the dream itself dies?"
"Night is the best time to experience these places.
It’s about stillness, and taking time to listen, to
smell, to feel, and to fully experience. The ghosts will tell
the stories, still delicately preserved within the peeling
paint, overgrown sidewalks through now vacant fields, rusted
gas pumps and abandoned main street shops. Over the years
the experience of photographing at night has gone from being
an uneasy, adrenaline charged exercise in stubborn determination,
to one where I now feel a strong connection to the places
themselves. Working alone, silently, with minimal gear, I
try not to disturb the mood. I avoid using a flashlight any
more than absolutely necessary. By waiting a moment to become
accustomed to the night, I actually see more. Soon I blend
in and become as much a part of the nocturnal environment
as the haunting calls of owls and coyotes in the distance,
the pigeons nesting in the rafters, and the skunks and rodents
that scurry about underfoot." www.nightphotographer.com
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"Time, time, time, see what's become of me
While I looked around For my possibilities
I was so hard to please
But look around, leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter"
A Hazy Shade of Winter by Simon and Garfunkel,
From Bookends, 1968 |