TITLE: Oxford: Light & Dark

Oxford: Light & Dark is an ongoing exploration of the city after nightfall. Oxford is often shown in ideal light: gold stone, blue skies, historic buildings and college quads. For much of the year, though, the city exists in darkness, shaped by pools of lamplight and the movement of people passing through.

When night falls, another Oxford appears: quieter, more introspective, and full of details easy to overlook. Wet cobbles catch the light. Railings, doorways and bicycles fall into shadow. A figure crosses briefly through the frame, present for a moment before disappearing into the night.

Influenced by Brassaï and classic night photography, these images look at Oxford as a lived city rather than a preserved one. They show the street as a place of solitude, movement and brief moments of human presence.

AUTHOR: Neil Mason (United Kingdom)

I am a photographer working in black and white, interested in how places carry time, memory, and human presence. My work explores the tension between permanence and change: the endurance of architecture and landscape, the shifting qualities of light and weather, and the fleeting traces of those who move through them.

Working in a project-based way, I return to places over time and look for ways of seeing beyond the familiar, particularly in locations with strong visual or historical identities. Monochrome allows me to distil form, tone, and contrast, while long exposure helps me stretch or quieten time, softening the boundary between presence and absence.

Across urban, coastal, and historically charged landscapes, I aim to make images that hold stillness and movement, clarity and ambiguity, and that reveal something of the layered atmosphere of a place.