Monuments

By Charlene Winfred

I want to say it's been a long time since I've gone walking at night with a camera for the pure hell of it, but that isn't true. I do it all the time when I am somewhere safe enough to do so. I've always liked walking around in the dark. Wrapped in shadow, tinged with electric glare, the spaces we build for prosperity, protection, progress, panacea, feel different. Or maybe it's I who feel different, more aligned with the odd fluorescent bulb in a tunnel of shadow, than the largesse of architecture in glorious day.

It has been, however, a long time since i've made pictures without people in it, although if I  am honest, those are the kinds I most enjoy making. I live in cities most of the time, and it's a strange form of catharsis - as if by excluding humans from my pictures, I free myself from what poet May Sarton called the collision of human interaction.