American Night Photography

P.J's 'Lucky Strike', Elko, Nevada 1995. Jeff Brouws

What immediately strikes me about this exhibition is the variation in the work of the photographers. Yet what first catches my eye is the portrayal of horrific scenes in Todd Hido's shots - interior views of stained carpets, creepy desolate rooms, a woman in seductive pose lying down, a tricycle tipped over by the side of the road and a telephone ripped off the wall. It has the feeling of a crime scene in progress, that someone is about to be harmed or of a house that has stayed empty for many years being entered. Abandonment, the seclusion of the small towns and isolation from others springs to mind; and with the old and worn trailers and the feeling that tumbleweed is about to blow across the pictures at any moment, I get a sense of dread and an uncomfortable feeling the longer I look at them. It seems Todd Hido wants to show us what really goes on in these middle-of-nowhere settings where everything is secretive. It is hideous, scary and excellent.

René Burri's contribution to the exhibition is New York's famous blackout of November 9th, 1965. He captures the essence of the madness, panic, discomfort and mayhem experienced by New Yorkers as they struggle to comprehend what has happened and what can be done. A worried official makes a call as his colleague holds a candle up to the phone; an officer directs traffic as people squeeze onto already crowded buses; two men in a bar smoke and drink by candlelight and for many the only way to tell the time is to stand next to a lit clock. I really enjoy how Burri shows the desperation of the moment and reveals the level of panic from many different perspectives, old and young, rich and poor. For everyone the feeling of fear is the same, and it seems for once that they came together against the separation caused by the big city.

Next up is Jack Delano's collection of images of railroads in Chicago and gas stations in rural Alabama and Massachusetts. He shows the greyness of urban life, the mills working at night and the constant reminder of money's place in American society. But he doesn't show anything original that presents America in a different light. There is nothing hard hitting that really stands out as memorable. This collection is uninspiring and plain.

Jeff Brouws' takes on the same theme with his collection but digs deeper. By contrast, he shows the absence of love and appreciation in big cities through shots of coffee shops waiting for customers, highways and brothels, looming darkness over deteriorating towns. And then in two clever shots - the first showing a hotel and car park lit up in the foreground, the second showing tall desert rock formations as the sun sets with the same hotel in the foreground- he shows in an impressive way how the environment can never be forgotten or hidden by modern buildings. If anything, he displays how colour photography has enhanced the effect of advertisements and buildings on the landscape and on our minds.

I go from here to Will Steacy's magnificent discarded and abandoned Detroit. Here are some great shots: one living tree standing against a disused factory, a shopping cart by the roadside, thrown out coffee cups, broken fences, mixtures of green grass and grey skies. I could be looking at derelict parts of Nottingham and it his way he shows how neglect and foreclosure can look the same in any neighbourhood; that loss is something we all share. The defining shots are of a missing bench with the legs still bolted into the pavement, and an abandoned building site that promises new condos, still under construction, thus speaking of America's broken promises and lack of security. There is nowhere safe to settle down in America.

After the photography I watch a 1958 short film by William Klein called Broadway by Light. Taking place between sunset and sunrise, it shows New York signs and advertising boards lighting up the city over the course of a night. The soundtrack mixes well with the film to imitate timings of instruments against signs and movement. At one point a worker on a ladder changes the letters on a cinema board as if fine tuning one of the instruments. Scrolling signs flicker along the city's busiest and most popular areas. It is a fantastic and lasting testament to the city that never sleeps, or in this case, the city that awakens at night and goes to bed the next morning. American Night Photography is a must see - a packed exhibition featuring staggering shots and insights into American life, the kind of life that you only get to see at night and in the most obscure of places.

And Now It's Dark: American Night Photogrpahy exhibition runs until Sunday 9 November, Djanogly Art Gallery, Highfields Park. 

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