Arches at Night

Index date: 2019-05-02

Last modified: 2020-10-25

A composition of two photographs taken from a window in a Lancashire town one spring night. The first photograph is a 20” exposure, yielding a very bright image that shows detail on the backs of the terraced houses from a dim red light, the teal from a frosted window on a more modern building. The second photo is a 5” exposure, capturing the burnt colours of the sky, and the sharp, bright light of the McDonald’s arches peering over the houses. The two photos have been stitched together, to capture both the realistic colours of the sky and the detail in the buildings only shown by a long exposure.

The hard delineation of regions of different colours reminds me of collage, and this speaks to the history of the town. Over the last 200 years new buildings and businesses have cropped up, and each decade has left its imprint on the town, in the forms of buildings, lighting, and transport infrastructure. Each successive generation must fit around the existing institutions,and so developing our towns and cities gets increasing complex and difficult over time.