ENTRY DESCRIPTION
This gelatin silver print is one of my series "Snow Garden". I used Kodak TMAX 400 B&W film and printed on Ilford MG Fiber 16"x20" paper in darkroom. The uploaded image file is scanned from my original darkroom print without any post production and original print is matted on 20"x20" frame.

Artist Statement
After sun goes down, night encompasses our space. Our sight is limited, and we’ll be blind in the absence of light. Darkness makes us anxious, frightened, stray… so, even a small fragile light loosens your strain and gives you a brief relief. Not the powerful sun light, but a weak artificial light is your only guiding light. The light itself, even an artificial light, could extend mercy to you under shades of night. In an extremely cold Alaska winter, doing night photography resembles to seeking for salvation which could be brought by street lights or porch lights.
Although I feel “salvation” through light shining in dark air, objects illuminated by the light seem to be disturbed to me. Their sound sleep are bothered by the light which indiscriminately illuminates the underneath. The warm light relentlessly exposes the existence of the object(s) under the light. Light is too powerful to avoid, so the object gives up resistance and silently accept their circumstance, as if they shut their mouth and close their heart. They suffer “pain” brought by the unexpected “salvation”. They accept their fate.
This contradiction, light could be “salvation” for one but also be “pain” for another, attracts me. More precisely, I feel some kind of enjoyment when I find these “salvation” and “pain” occurring simultaneously in my mind. For me, night photography stems from the longing for documenting development in conflicting and ironic feelings stirring in my mind while watching night light.

AUTHOR
Ryota Kaji Kajita is originally from Japan, completed his MFA degree in photography at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, worked at the University of Alaska Museum of the North as a collection photographer, and teaches at the Joshibi University of Art and Design in Japan.

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