(revised book version)
I was awarded a Somerville Arts Council Fellowship to photograph Somerville at night. The photographs in this book are the result of this project.
It took me a long time to learn that one does not have to go far to find subjects worthy of being photographed. I guess I am being helped by the fact that I am European, so, to my eyes, there is something “exotic” to the streets of Somerville that the locals may not notice. I believe that placing a subject in a different light, quite literally, is all it takes to make people see what has been there all along. I was once told that people rarely spend more than 3 seconds per image in a show. But viewers often spend much more time in front on my night photographs, because they notice so many details of their own neighborhood that they overlook during the day.
I am very interested in photographing urban or suburban locations that could be just about anywhere in the US, but frame the place in such a way, with such a light, that the viewer is compelled to think that something is about to happen, or has just happened. Night photography is very slow; I spend a lot of time next to the camera waiting for the exposure to end. During this time, I look around, I see objects or traces people have left hours, days, months before. I get to imagine their lives. This is what stimulates me to take my next picture, and the process never ends. There is almost never anybody visible in my pictures, but I think that ultimately, these pictures are about the people of Somerville, people I don't know, but people who could be very close to me.