The Artificial Glow of American Cities

The Beautiful Artificial Glow of American Cities

Reply to Dave’s comment on the image below

Posted on Flickr on April 2, 2013

The Glow of Austin from 10 Miles to the Northeast

 

Dave, I too love that glow to the horizon.  These conditions are so common here, that they are often the subject of an entire night's shooting session/therapeutic walk.  I must have 1000 shots of the artificial glow of Austin.  The foreground is used as props (hopefully interesting) to help show off the glow; like some of the Dave's curves images, but that pattern is so strong that it becomes the main subject and the sky takes on the supporting role and it is a strong one.  Same goes at times for the "end of the road" series, although it is to the east, and the glow is not strong enough to be very noticeable very often.  While no one responsible for lighting our cities so lavishly ever considered this glow phenomena visible to outlying areas, it is an unanticipated positive consequence.  Many people enjoy this indirect view of our cities, but they rarely mention it verbally.  Only us intense photographers who consciously look for such things, as some of us will use anything in the environment to make a satisfying image.  So, three cheers to us, a small legion of the population who notice such subtle beauty and capture it so others can enjoy the beauty of it.  Never before has American culture needed artists to make and keep us aware of the beauty in our world, which at times can be seen as just ugliness, stress, and an ever growing number of problems that we feel powerless to cope with.