This photography project is an exploration on how we subconsciously envision the nocturnal world and how we find comfort in the darkness.

When confronting the inevitability of night and day we cannot help but realize how much of our lives we spend in the dark where some use sundown to rest while others are more nocturnal. The inevitability of the routine of sunrise and sundown is much like the inevitability of our natural cycle of life and death. This concept of life and death consumes our lives, and yet, we have found a way to cope with the uncertainty of what happens after.

My project will capture the moments within the nocturnal world where we are reminded of the end of our routine. I want to capture the moment we realize we are one day closer to our personal end. I want to raise the question of how we overcame our fear of “the end.” And yet, we never fully became unafraid of the unknown, but we have grown to make ourselves comfortable through means of illumination.

Since childhood, we have been ingrained with the idea of finding the light when you are in a dark place, whether that means emotionally or physically it brings us comfort to search for a way out and through our fears of the unknown. Through my photographs, I explore how we all subconsciously find comfort within the illuminations of the manufactured technologies of warm, colorful, and neon light/signs that light up the corners where we no longer feel afraid about what is on the other side. With the capturing of the nocturnal, another concept arises as the illuminations of the night carry messages on mobility and commodity. The bright lights and signs that create the nocturnal city carry language and suggestions onto its viewer.

Nocturnal life becomes attracted towards business and gas stations just as a fly becomes

attracted to light surrounded by darkness. The nocturnal will always seek out the illuminations regardless of the subliminal messages to our consumer selves because one is attractive to the sign of life and the proof that one is not alone. The locations that radiate the most illuminations are places like gas stations and food stores because of its essential role on civilization. These places become necessities as gas fuel vehicles to enable movement and transportation, the same way that food enables us to survive.

 

We might believe we escaped our childhood fear of the darkness, yet, we never overcame our fear of the unknown; of the concept of death itself. This is the reason the nocturnal life is filled with lights, to serve as the comfort of the proof of life and human existence. The unknown, the inevitability of our death, and the odd temptations that raise curiosity in mystery scare all of us subconsciously, and how we cope is like how we did as children, a nightlight that illuminates our bedrooms to ease our mind from the darkness.