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Essay / London Knights Exhibition: “Suspend the reality of everyday life”
London is a very diverse city that has welcomed people from different cultures for centuries. This crowded, sleepless, organized and bustling city has a secret and obscure specialty at night. London becomes more visible at night because people can be whoever they want on the darkest streets. At night, people who stay and live in London can easily forget their usual daily struggle and try to have fun with the events happening there. Lightning and entertainment have also completely transformed London's nightlife. As soon as the concept of nightlife became popular, including entertainment itself, thieves and thieves began to hide in the darkness of the night. Eventually, every street corner started to be filled with people who wanted to get into the entertainment business. As people walk through the crowded streets of a big city like London, they don't know each other. For this reason, photography plays an important role in depicting human nature and development by capturing moments from the daily lives of individuals. Cities like London are the center of culture, arts and education. However, due to daily struggles, we have lost the sense of association and intimacy with the people around us. In order to understand the stories behind these moments and observe the daily lives of various people, the Museum of London presented a vast and aesthetic exhibition of photographs called London Nights. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay First of all, the London Nights photographs and the themes within them can make all visitors question and research their personal relationship with London. at night, because every photo and film scene has a huge story behind it. They don't need any basic information to visit and enjoy the exhibition, as they will experience London at night from different points of view. From children to adults, this exhibition will show the secret and ordinary lives of people at night in London. Visitors can easily understand the themes and stories behind the photography. However, if they really want to have prior knowledge of the photographers and photos, visitors should check out the Museum of London website. As photography has an essential connection to reality and emotion, London Nights will make people feel empathy towards those who work late nights. Additionally, the exhibition is divided into three sections. Anna Sparham, the curator of London Nights, has titled these three sections Dark Matters, London Illuminated and Switch On Switch Off. She also mentioned that everyone explores different sites of the city at night, but that this is not a chronological overview of the night. According to her, it is a kind of visually rich environment with endless subjects. This photo exhibition brought together many contemporary and historical works and made wonderful connections between photography and people around the world. Many of the photos in the exhibit will help people associate every fear and pleasure they have in their minds with the city after dark. The most important aspect of these photos is to recognize the charms of London, both the darker side of the nighttime urban environment and the idea of a 24-hour city. The photography exhibition London Nights tells different stories of 50 artists exploring the city at night. People are used to being in the city at night,but it is also the most effective, the most particular and the most sophisticated experience in many ways. The exhibition will remind people who live and stay in a city of the extraordinary and unique nightlife. The suburban areas and forgotten underbelly of London will be showcased in this photography exhibition highlighting current arguments in today's world. The photographs in the exhibition present scenes of the city after dark, evoking feelings of menace and curiosity. More than 200 works are on display in the exhibition, reflecting the diverse atmosphere of London life, from street lights to forgotten suburban paths. As mentioned at the beginning, three sections are presented in this exhibition. In the section titled Dark Matters, the photograph highlights the importance of the worry, anxiety and vulnerability that can easily arise in the city after dark. Artists such as David George whose photographs are associated with famous director Alfred Hitchcock can evoke sentimental reactions from visitors. The night has a melancholy side so it represents loneliness and David George has also captured a timeless and abandoned cityscape. Looking at his photographs, people can easily get the feeling of a familiar story having a hidden and mystical context. David George said "I like melancholy because it's a choice. It's not like depression. You can choose to be melancholic." Besides its melancholy nature, the photos remind some people of crime scenes but they also have serenity and calm because of the lightning. Emotion and imagination are the most essential concepts for photographers who want to explore the darkness. It can overshadow the environment and fears can arise during the dark hours of the city. London Nights photographers depict a city in all its aspects after sunset. Night is also a symbol of controversial ideas, so it remains a subjective topic for people. Some people describe it as something scary and others find it calmer. It may depend on the cities from which people come to visit the exhibition due to cultural differences. This will affect the feelings associated with the night. For example, in Türkiye, some women are afraid to go out at night because they have to take a taxi, which is not so safe in Istanbul. However in London, women can easily trust taxi drivers at night and they can walk around alone wearing whatever clothes they want. Night time should represent independence but unfortunately in some countries it is difficult to walk alone at night. For this reason, London Nights is more than just an aesthetic spectacle, but also informative as it should be. Especially, for younger generations, it is a pragmatic exposure as they can learn how to protect themselves from dangers at night. Also in this section there is a series of photographs called Metropole. Lewis Bush's Metropole project shows the effects of industrialization and capitalization in London. The city needed to rebuild itself very urgently and desperately as a new world city strategically and physically, under the imperial twilight. This recent and rapid transformation of the metropolis draws the viewer into the trap of the solitude of the city of London. Looking closer at photos of Lewis Bush, people get lost in the windows of skyscrapers. Additionally, she used several exhibits to highlight identical, unidentified office buildings in London. City development to make moneyis now a topic of current discussion. Beautiful buildings are being demolished not only in London but in every country around the world because people make money by changing the nature of local communities. Lewish Bush said in the interview that she usually photographs things that arouse angry feelings, so it was an easy and logical idea to represent the changes in the city through her photography. For this reason, some people may find her photos disturbing, but she creates noise for a citizen who lives in changing cities. The next section of the exhibition is called London Illuminated. It features nighttime scenes of London's lit urban environment. There are also pieces by amateur photographers like Mercie Lack. Mercia's works focus on the tourist locations of London, but she has a unique style and ability to capture never-before-seen moments in urban scenes. She takes photos as a hobby and it is an important way to introduce visitors to a female photographer working at night in the 1930s. Also, the series called Dark City by William Eckersley shows darkness as a technical illusion. His photography captures the empty spaces near buildings through powerful perspective. For example, he captured a supermarket parking lot at night. In his photos, people can immediately notice the sky because it is so inky. The reflections of the flickering lights of street lamps can take viewers on a walk among London's insomniac citizens. These photos and films are displayed in the exhibition with purple light coming from the walls so that viewers can immediately feel a nighttime environment when viewing them. The Museum of London creates an egzotic ambiance with these lights and people will feel like they are walking at night because of this environment. Furthermore, the most important achievement of museums is the freedoms that allow people to understand and have information about the objects they find in museums. As visitors walk around, they gain detailed knowledge about the objects they are interested in through these headphones. The Museum of Modern Art in New York has succeeded on this point because it wants to increase the educational context of the exhibitions. However, viewers may not be exposed to this auditory system as much in this exhibition, because they do not need it when looking at the photograph. Additionally, there are documentaries that show the streets of London at night from different angles and viewers can put on their headphones and then listen to the soundtrack of the short film. For example, there is a 6 minute digital movie with audio called London/Winterreise in the section called Dark Matters. Bless Luxemburg's film features two nighttime journeys from Shoreditch to the City. Viewers can feel the rhythm of the song called “Die Winterreise” by Shubert while watching the construction sites and streets at night in London. Soundtracks and auditory setup play an important role in attracting the attention of viewers. This creates a sudden and real nighttime environment for a short period of time. It is for this reason that people from all over the world should visit this exhibition to experience a mystical and interactive museum journey. Third, the last section called Switch On, Switch Off reminds me of the lights coming from apartments at night. However, it draws attention to night workers such as drivers, sex workers and cleaners. This section shows the different facets of complex associations such as entertainment and.