Our discussion of the night sky in class today made me think of a photography exhibit from Thierry Cohen that a friend showed me last year. It is a photo series that imagines cities from around the world without any streetlights, under the night sky. The artist visited nine cities and took photos of them during the day. He then visited spots on the same longitude that had little to no light pollution and took photos of the night sky. For instance, the skies above Shanghai are actually in Western Sahara and Paris is illuminated by the stars over Montana at locations on the same longitude. Here are a few of the striking images, let me know what you think!
SERIE VILLES ETEINTES
These images are wild and beautiful. I wouldn’t be able to picture any city like this because I’ve never thought of it as feasible. That is until a city like New York has a huge blackout. In 2003, the entire Northeast lost power in August for at least 8 hours and for some one week. If you look up August 2003 blackout Manhattan, you can see a similar picture of the city skyline like the ones you posted!
Love these cool images Erik! I have a couple of friends at home who live out on horse farms relatively far from sources of light pollution, and it is amazing to see the scenery illuminated naturally by the light of stars. We used to lay out on one of my friend’s trampolines and gaze at the stars. We never needed any sort of light to make our way across the backyard because the stars would shine so brightly. It is awesome to see that glow and the presence of stars in areas where this does not happen due to light pollution.
While looking for an image of Kentucky skies at night I found this website with surreal images of the night sky in all 50 states. I attached the link in case you’re interested in giving this collection a look!
https://iso.500px.com/usa-night-sky-photos/