Dark Photography

Highlighting the darkness. It seems almost like an oxymoron, but in photography certain techniques can do just that. Much like darker tones found in painting, dark photographic compositions can echo melancholy, somberness or loneliness – whether that is in a dimly lit nightscape or a densely packed crowd void of light in the urban landscape. Both black and white and color photography can create dark compositions, playing with the hues of browns, black and grays that emerge within photographic processes. By using contrast to highlight a subject, such as an item, gaze, or outline, it might suggest a dark emotion or feeling of loneliness, danger and even intimacy and adventure. In Artsper's own selection of works, Christophe Dabreau notes that he observes his subjects and attempts to “bring to light" a view hidden in shadow. Whilst Cécile Baldewyns' work aims to tell stories and reveal secrets of her desires and sorrow through dark compositions. Though her work has been deemed both sensual and disturbing, isn't the foreboding and dramatic nature of dark tones the perfect setting for it?