Artificial light and negative spaces
Lately, I’ve been venturing out during the dark hours. It’s quite convenient here during winter, as the sun rises around seven in the morning and sets around four in the afternoon.
One morning, I woke up around four in the morning to take a family member to the airport. As a way to bid farewell to our fantastic trip, I decided to capture some cool photos on our way back from SeaTac. I hadn’t planned on taking street photos, but I thought I’d give it a try and see what I could find in the SODO industrial district.
I’ve always been fascinated by darkening photos with bright lights in corners, neon lights, and wet streets that exploit light reflections. In processing the shots I took that morning, I found myself captivated by the moody atmosphere. This experience has led me to start a series of 1:1 frames, each featuring scenes enriched by darkness and punctuated with artificial lights.
In these photos, negative space plays an essential role, allowing the images to breathe while amplifying the elements of light and shadow. By using empty areas—stretches of asphalt, vast blank walls, or even the night sky as backgrounds—I can create a visual balance that draws the eye toward illuminated subjects. Negative space in photography isn’t just “empty”; it’s an active element that shapes the way we perceive what’s around it, giving the subjects and textures a unique weight. This balance between light and darkness forms a natural contrast, letting bright areas pop against the enveloping shadows and allowing the viewer to feel the isolation of each illuminated detail.
Artists like Fan Ho, Michael Kenna, and Brassai have famously embraced negative space and the stark use of light and shadow. Fan Ho, especially, often composed his images with large portions of shadow that bring out a quiet sense of solitude and introspection. Similarly, Michael Kenna’s industrial landscapes utilize vast, empty spaces to evoke both the power and loneliness of industrial scenes. I found their work to be particularly inspirational as I experimented with similar techniques in Seattle’s industrial districts, where expansive, dimly lit areas contrast sharply with sudden, bright artificial light sources.
Gas Station on First Ave, SODO
Additionally, black-and-white photography has proven to be a perfect medium for capturing the essence of these scenes. By removing color, black-and-white tones distill each image down to its raw elements of form, contrast, and texture. The industrial setting, with its steel structures, concrete surfaces, and neon lights, is made more intense through monochrome, as it brings out the graphic quality of the scene—the lines, curves, and light fixtures become more pronounced, each detail standing out vividly against the empty spaces around it. This interplay between the dark and the light fixtures creates an almost cinematic effect, evoking a sense of mystery and nostalgia that color might dilute.
Black and White
Color
To achieve a retro look in these nighttime shots, I found inspiration in the iconic colors and tonal qualities of Kodak Kodachrome film, which shaped the visual language of photography in the 1980s. Known for its rich, vibrant hues, deep contrast, and unmistakable “pop,” Kodachrome brings a warmth and liveliness to industrial scenes that can transform otherwise stark, cold environments into a nostalgic landscape. Adding this Kodachrome-inspired palette to negative space-focused industrial photography lends the images an almost cinematic, timeless quality—one that echoes the gritty, evocative look of urban spaces in 80s photography.
Kodachrome's deep, saturated colors—particularly in reds, blues, and greens—combined with its characteristic contrast, allows the viewer’s eye to gravitate naturally toward the brightest or most colorful elements within a composition. For nighttime or low-light industrial shots, this effect accentuates the neon lights, wet streets, and structural details, while the shadowed, empty spaces form a rich canvas around them. This interplay between vibrant color and deep shadow adds a layer of intrigue and mood to each image, making the industrial scenes feel both nostalgic and cinematic.
Showbox SODO Neon light, remanence of 80s Cyberpunk
By emulating the Kodachrome look with its warmth, high saturation, and intense contrasts, we can amplify the nostalgic feel of industrial photography. This palette gives otherwise quiet, empty spaces a feeling of presence, drawing attention to how colors transform in the darkness and how small details—like a lone street lamp or a patch of graffiti—seem to “glow” within the scene. These images echo the retro aesthetic that captures industrial districts' grandeur and desolation. The interplay of artificial lights, wet streets, and darkened spaces becomes an homage to the 80s style and a tribute to the photographers who immortalized these moments in color and shadow.
In exploring industrial photography, I noticed that shadows and artificial lights have a different quality here—they almost feel like they have a physical presence, especially in black and white. Street lamps create halos that slice through the mist, illuminating empty loading docks or casting patterns on warehouse walls. Neon lights reflect off the wet pavement, creating streaks of light that break through the darkness. These stark contrasts, shaped by negative space, become a powerful storytelling tool, letting the viewer linger on each element of the scene, each one framed by darkness.
The dark hours and the SODO industrial district offer a unique canvas, allowing me to experiment with light, shadow, and empty spaces to evoke a sense of solitude, quiet, and introspection—qualities that I hope will speak to others, much like the works of the artists I admire.