Before the illumination of cities was established, darkness ruled in the world from sunset to sunrise. If one takes into account that photography is writing or drawing with light, how does one take a picture in the dark?

The night and its photographic representation obsessed photography pioneers, who resorted to all kinds of tricks to make visible the impossible. However, nowadays, the modern city is a torch of light that makes the hours of darkness profitable thanks to the illumination that emerges from buildings, the sky, everywhere: light bulbs, lampposts, neon lights and advertising signs that try to repel fear, a fear reflected in the beauty of photographers’ shadows. In black and white photography, shadows are contrasted, delving deeper into them and their mystery; shadows that colour has enabled to reconstruct and reveal what they hide. Night-time is not only a counterpoint of day, but also a metaphor.

In this issue dedicated to the night and to the diverse ways of living and looking at it, we show the different kinds that have been created throughout the history of photography. As Sergio Rubira says in the main text: “There are many possible nights. In London, an April night is not the same as an October night. Neither is a night in June the same as in Oslo or New Delhi, nor are those of Paris and New York alike. One night is actually a thousand, a thousand and one nights, or more”.

Two interviews, one with Catalonian photographer Manel Esclusa (“The Beginning of Everything is Darkness”) and another with the american Todd Hido (“Imagining More Than We See”), offer two distinct and complementary perspectives on how to confront the dark with a photographic camera.

The dossiers of the following three artists study in depth the multiple ways to experience night’s darkness: Sarah Jones, Oswaldo Ruiz and Lynn Saville. Different ways to understand the night, its darkness, its shadows and its mysteries, to approach it in urban scenes or in plain nature, gardens or suburbs. Night as a dark territory open to the imagination.