Introduction by Lynn Saville
I photograph the urban landscape during twilight and dawn, those relatively brief periods when the light is shifting and a bit precarious. As the photographs in this feature illustrate, I do not bring my own lighting to a site but rely on the interplay of natural and artificial illumination. Also, though I once focused on iconic sites and structures, I am now more interested in vernacular architecture and overlooked sites.
Most often, I like to capture buildings, warehouses, lots, and bridges dreaming their own dreams in a timeless instant and a zone without people. In some cases, however, a small or ghosted figure serves paradoxically to emphasize the absence of humanity in what is clearly a human-made environment. There are five such figures in the following pictures—can you find them?
ARTerrain Gallery | In Shifting Light | Urban Landscapes
By Lynn Saville
All images in this gallery copyright Lynn Saville; images may not be copied or otherwise used without express written consent of the artist. Click image to view in larger size or to begin slideshow:
About the Artist
Fine-art photographer Lynn Saville was educated at Duke University and Pratt Institute. She specializes in photographing cities at twilight and dawn, or, as she describes them, “the boundary times between night and day.”
Her photographs have been widely exhibited in the U.S. and abroad. Dark City: Urban America at Night (Damiani, 2015), with an introduction by the well-known British critic Geoff Dyer, is her third book. Her two previous monographs are Acquainted with the Night (Rizzoli, 1997) and Night/Shift (Random House/Monacelli, 2009), with an introduction by Arthur C. Danto.
Saville has won a number of awards, including fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the New York State Council for the Arts; a Premio in the Scanno, Italy, Festival of Photography; and First Place in the Architecture category, Women in Photography International. Her work is represented by the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York and is in the permanent art collections of major museums, corporations, and individuals. She lives in New York City with her husband, the poet Philip Fried.
Find more of Lynn’s work at www.LynnSaville.com.
Header image: Pepsi-Cola Sign, Long Island City, New York, 2008. Inset image: Brooklyn Bridge Park Construction, Brooklyn, New York, 2011.
