I have been photographing “Night Windows” from my Manhattan apartment for several years.
The images remind many of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” but I think instead of Edward Hopper, whose title I have borrowed.
In his “Night Windows,” Hopper looks in on a woman bending away from him, unaware of his gaze. Her clothing is scanty, but his depiction is delicate. I strive for something similar. I love not the shocking, but the everyday.
As a photographer rather than a painter, I must rely on serendipity: I must see my subject move into the light, ideally when the surrounding atmosphere is also striking. The images accumulate slowly.
I think of Hopper when I shoot and when I hone my prints. I love exploring the intersection of natural and man-made light. Sometimes I discover a sense of shelter. Sometimes I am confronted by the urban phenomenon of proximity without intimacy. Always I feel the presence of others.
To me, that is the feel of night in the city.