Light cities is one of Stephenson’s more recent series. Drawing on many of the methodologies and preoccupations of his previous work, Light cities involved using long exposures to photograph major cities around the world at night. The series continued themes and ideas common to Stephenson’s practice. For instance, his interests in the landscape, architecture, time and the symbolic nature of light are evident in this project. The long exposures accentuate the vivid colours in the city lights and also serve to eliminate the busyness of cities, as movement is turned into streams of colour and light.

The cities in this series are generally seen from a consistent viewpoint, usually from high vantage points such as open observation decks, roofs of high buildings, hotel and apartment balconies, or looking across water. This, along with the vivid colours and lack of evidence of people and movement in the photographs, serves to create a consistency across each of the images, which suggests something of the relative uniformity of cities in the globalised world. It also serves to eliminate the foreground and allows the viewer to focus on the vast, awe-inspiring masses of light and energy that contemporary cities have become.

(2017)