Fear of the dark: looking for night pictures for final year project :-)

Hello,

I'm a Graphic Design student and I use a Canon 750D with which I like to go outside once in a while. But I'm here for a specific question, based on some of my own experiences… So I hope this is ok!

For my final year project (for LUCA School of Arts, Belgium) I'm looking for pictures of what scares you (a lot or just a bit) in the dark.

Beautiful or experimental pictures, good or bad... I'm looking for all types of pictures - as long as they're about what scares you at night.

Capture your fear with your camera.

Go to www.picturesofthedark.com and share your story.

This student thanks you!

:-)

Marian.

Fear for darkness is possibly evolutionarily hardwired in us to prevent us from going to places where our eyes cannot detect danger. I also believe, it takes a lot of training to get over such ingrained fear. Of course, fear for darkness varies between individuals, age etc., but I don't believe anyone is completely immune from it. Thats what makes it a potentially apt subject to harness in photography. Tactfully executed images can bring out and show us our hidden raw fears and emotions, which could be even more significant when our rational brains cannot justify them. Fear itself has been a prominent subject in literary and art fields for many centuries. I have interest in experimenting with this area in future. For now, I would like to share an image that is heavily darkened using photoshop to attempt to create an effect. Of course its only a first attempt.

Fear for darkness is possibly evolutionarily hardwired in us to prevent us from going to places where our eyes cannot detect danger. I also believe, it takes a lot of training to get over such ingrained fear. Of course, fear for darkness varies between individuals, age etc., but I don't believe anyone is completely immune from it. Thats what makes it a potentially apt subject to harness in photography. Tactfully executed images can bring out and show us our hidden raw fears and emotions, which could be even more significant when our rational brains cannot justify them. Fear itself has been a prominent subject in literary and art fields for many centuries. I have interest in experimenting with this area in future. For now, I would like to share an image that is heavily darkened using photoshop to attempt to create an effect. Of course its only a first attempt.

 

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I couldn't agree more! I also think everyone has 'some' kind of unease about the darkness. If you like, you can post your final picture on www.picturesofthedark.com and I can add you to the other pictures. Here's hoping that a lot of other interesting photographers are also interested :)

Marian, you know I've already sent one photo via your project website. And I regret to say I am still not afraid of the dark. :-) But I found this snapshot last night and thought I'd put it in the thread for the heck of it. I love these colors--top floor of a parking deck in Louisville, KY, about a dozen years ago. Good luck with the project!

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That actually looks terrifying.

Opened a thread and had a panic attack from the second photo, nice. Really cool

Thanks (LOL!) :-)

Most mammals in the Age(s) of the Dinosaurs lived in the ground, or were at least nocturnal. This might explain those "feeler" whiskers on your cat, dog, etc. It's another reason they survived the KT extinction.

Primate ancestors, on the other hand, tended to live in the trees and were active in the daylight, more or less. Maybe that's why we lack those long sensitive whiskers?

And are afraid of the dark.

"Capture your fear with your camera.

Go to www.picturesofthedark.com and share your story."

Your website did not work when I tried it.

Well, better for a photographer to have fear of the dark, nyctophobia, than fear of the light, photophobia.

You can't photograph the night sky unless it's dark outside, the darker, the better.

Where we go--what we are doing there. This is the key.

As we get older, our minds know that there are more threats--from the simply mundane as decreasing lack of physical agility--to the decades of knowledge that as the night moves along those that are seeking devious opportunities rise to the movement...

Yes, it is evolutionary. Who worries about cemeteries in the daylight? Who gives a great deal of thought over traveling through an alley? But in the nocturnal period, predators and prey go about their movements. Tens of thousands of years imprinted in DNA tell us that there is danger in the night. Some places are safe. Some that are safe in the daylight is not so anymore. Crime statistics reinforce this perception.

There is beauty, and there is a danger. Use your senses!

I have a roll of TMax 3200, and a roll of Delta 3200, both of which, so the data sheets say,

can push to 25000. I have the idea of going out with a full moon, and seeing what I can get pictures of.

But I haven't done it yet.

I do have the TMax developer that both say can do it.