David Stephenson

David Stephenson's stunning large format photographs ofcities at night across America, Australia and Asia reveal globalizedurban sprawl, energy use, and light pollution. Theseglowing "light cities" suggest much that is both good andbad in our industrialized society: extraordinary examples ofa monumental technological sublime, where awe, beauty,and human aspiration are tinged with the shadow of loomingenvironmental catastrophe, our engine of modernityseemingly running on empty. The accompanying essay byphotographic historian Keith F. Davis discusses the evolvingidea of the city as a key theme in photography, and whatit has symbolized, from the modernist city as an engineeringfeat, to the post-modernist city as a focus of energyand information.DAVID STEPHENSON (*1955, Washington D.C.) has lived inAustralia since 1982, when he took up a teaching post at theUniversity of Tasmania Art School. A fascination for vastness inspace and time has led him to travel and photograph extensivelyaround the world, with journeys to Europe, the Himalayas, andboth the Arctic and Antarctic. His photographs and video workshave been widely exhibited in galleries around the world.