(Brandon) It's the darkness that's got you down. Nobody feels really safe in the dark. Nobody who's ever a child, that is. I'll open these, alright? There. That's much better.
Pigment print, from Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, 1948, 24 x 32 in, 2016.
Night is a research project which explores the use and depiction of nighttime in classic Hollywood cinema. Early movie cameras were not capable of capturing low light environments. When physical night appeared on film it was artificial, faked for its ability to drive narrative and create mood. I am studying these faked hours of darkness by photographing its presence on screen. The following photographs are from a variety of movies that use a myriad of techniques to represent night. This image, for example, is taken from Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, 1948, a film for which he built the largest cyclorama ever created. These images are not screenshots, they are closeup photographs of simulated night, an effect which usually appears only in the cinematic background. After this process of research and photographic documentation, I would like to expand this project into immersive installations, creating false nighttime experiences in a gallery interior.
What a lovely evening. Pity we couldn't have done it with the curtains open in the bright sunlight.
Pigment print, from Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, 1948, 24 x 32 in., 2016.
The trouble with you is you really don't know how to relax.
Pigment print, from The House on Telegraph Hill, 1951, 24 x 32 in., 2016.
You watched the old South disappear one night.
Pigment print, from Gone with the Wind, 1939, 32 x 24 in., 2016.
Where are you going without your shawl, and the night air fixing to set in?
Pigment print, from Gone with the Wind, 1939, 24 x 32 in., 2016.
I'm not scared. You know I won't leave you.
Pigment print, from Gone with the Wind, 1939, 32 x 24 in., 2016.
NORMA Stars are ageless, aren't they?
Pigment print, from Sunset Boulevard, 1950, 24 x 32 in., 2016.
It is raining hard outside, with streaks of lightning illuminating Nikki as he stands at the window looking out at the lighted city below. It is now nearly midnight.
Pigment print, from An Affair to Remember, 1957, 24 x 32 in., 2016.
I had champagne last night.
Pigment print, from High Society, 1956, 24 x 32 in., 2016.
It is nightfall and the mosquitoes have left their homes in the mud, under leaves, on stalks of reeds, to hunt flesh and Blood.
Pigment print, from The African Queen, 1951, 24 x 32 in., 2016.
The SOUND of his blowing out the lantern; darkness.
Pigment print, from The African Queen, 1951, 24 x 32 in., 2016.
It was so dark she could hardly see his face.
Pigment print, from Inn of the Sixth Happiness, 1958, 32 x 24 in., 2016.
Don’t you know you’re beautiful.
Pigment print, from Inn of the Sixth Happiness, 1958, 24 x 32 in., 2016.
The darkness is closing about us.
Pigment print, from Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1959, 24 x 32 in., 2016.
night