Umbra

The Umbra project is born of an attempt to share a phenomenon I find beautiful. In my travels through the city at night I was constantly encountering thought-provoking shapes projected on streets and sidewalks that were cast by the lights we keep on at night. In an attempt to both draw attention to and temporarily preserve these projections I began outlining their contours in chalk. Chalk, like the shadows themselves, is a fugitive material. At times these drawing have lasted two years, in many cases they are washed away the next morning. I began making photographs of the completed pieces in an attempt to further share these short lived installations and my appreciation for the beauty of the night.

This project is an ongoing series of chalk-outlined shadows at night around the US in cities like New York, San Francisco, Seattle and small towns in Oregon and California and began in earnest in March of 2006.

These photos are all taken at night. The shadows are cast by lights of all sorts: street lights, house lights, flood lights, on buildings and on poles.

I make the drawings and photographs myself.

None of these images are shot during the day, though when I color balance them they occasionally look like that way.

People often wonder about waiting for the shadows to line up with the drawings during the day. I've never tried, but if you go back at night they'll be there; assuming, of course, a building super hasn't hosed the drawing away.

Umbra is Latin for shadow.

Map of where these pieces were originally executed.

A number of these are for sale through Gallery Katz in Boston.

Thanks to Ben Terrett for his post on Noisy Decent Graphics about this set.

Please visit my website: www.michaelneff.com

79 photos | 8,264 views

items are from between 21 Jun 2007 & 08 May 2009.