TITLE: DARK CITY LIGHTS

With the onset of darkness the city is lit up by countless artificial light sources. This may be a matter of course in Western civilization. However, our relationship with lighting and darkness is ambivalent. In a positive way, an artificially illuminated night sky to us means security, prosperity and modernity. But in urban spaces we are also confronted with issues of governmental surveillance, social exclusion and cultural decline. Which view prevails often depends on the situation and varies over time.

The night sky as bright as daylight, artificially illuminated by countless lights, is the starting point of this portfolio.
DARK CITY LIGHTS presents the urban opposites of darkness and light in abstract black and white images. Based on the fundamental aspects of the illuminated city, the work can be divided in multiple parts: lightings on paths and public places, stray light reflections, light installations in shop windows and on buildings as well as literary neon signs.

The motivation for this series is not to create a typological and final documentation of the objects. Rather, it is the fascination of the hidden beauty of these technical devices, what drives me.

DARK CITY LIGHTS is an example of how urban traces can be found and interpreted. The images may reengage people, not only with the hidden beauty of their personal environment but also with the meaning of objects in public spaces.

As a result, DARK CITY LIGHTS shows the transformation of everyday motifs into an art form, without losing their urban rawness. The images were taken during nocturnal walks especially through Stuttgart, Berlin, Frankfurt, Edinburgh and Aarhus.

AUTHOR: Oliver Raschka (Germany)

Oliver Raschka is an emerging artist from Stuttgart, Germany. He studied economics and psychology. As a photographic autodidact he trained himself through numerous workshops with renowned photographers. He loves black-and-white photography, coffee is the drug of his choice, and loud rock music is what he likes. His photographs have been widely published in group and individual exhibitions as well as in international and national journals.