Night photography news: Photographers find light in the dead of night
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.