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.
