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 lively city has a shadowy secret speciality at night. London become more visible at night because people can be whoever they want to be in the darkest streets. At night, people who stay and live in London can easily forget about their usual daily struggle and try to have fun with the events that take place. Lightning and entertainment also completely transformed London nightlife. As soon as the concept of nightlife had become popular including the entertainment itself, the robbers and thieves start to hide in the darkness of the night. Eventually, every corner of the streets were beginning to be full with the people who wanted to settle down for entertainment business. While people walking in these crowded streets in a huge city like London, they are not aware of each other. For this reason, photography plays an important role for representing the human nature and development by capturing moments of individuals’ daily lives. Cities such as London are the center of culture, and the arts and education. However, because of the daily life struggle we have lost a sense of association and intimacy with the people around us. In order to understand the stories behind the moments and observe the daily life of various people, Museum of London displayed a huge and aesthetic photography exhibition called London Nights.

First of all, the photography at London Nights and the themes within them can lead all of the visitors to question and seek their personal relationship with London at night because every photo and film scene have a huge story behind them. They don't need any background information for visiting and enjoying the exhibition because they will experience London at night from different point of views. From children to adults, this exhibition will show the secret and ordinary life of people at night in London. Visitors can easily understand the themes and stories behind the photography. However if they really want to get prior knowledge about the photographers and photos, visitors should check the website of the Museum of London.

As photography have an essential link with reality and emotions, London Nights will lead people to feel empathy towards people who work for late hours at night. Moreover, the exhibition is divided into three sections. Anna Sparham who is the the curator of London Nights titled these three sections as Dark Matters, London Illuminated and Switch On Switch Off. She also mentioned that each explores a various sights of the city at night but it is not a chronological overview of the night. According to her, it is a kind of visually rich environment with infinite subjects. This photo exhibition brought so many contemporary and historic works together and it made wonderful links between photography and the people from all around the world. Many photos in the exhibition will help people to associate every fear and pleasure in their minds with the city after dark. The most important aspect of these photos is to acknowledge the charms of London both the darker side with the urban environment at night and the idea of a 24 hour city.

London Nights photography exhibition tell different stories from 50 artists exploring city at night. People are used to being at the city at night but it is also the most effective, peculiar and sophisticated experience in many ways. The exhibition will remind the extraordinary and unique life at night to the people who are live and stay in a city. The suburban areas and forgotten underside of London will be presented in this photography exhibition by underlining the current arguments of today’s world.

Photographs in the exhibition present scenes of the city after dark by arousing the sensations of threat and curiosity. Over 200 works display in the exhibition by reflecting the diverse atmosphere of London life from the lights in the streets to the forgotten pathways in suburban regions. As it is mentioned in the beginning, there are three sections are introduced in this exhibition. In the section called Dark Matters, photography points out the importance of worry, anxiety and vulnerability that can be easily arise by the city after dark. Artists such as David George whose photographs are associated with the famous director named Alfred Hitchcock can evoke the sentimental responses of the visitors. Night has a melancholy side so it represents the loneliness and David George also captured a timeless, abandoned urban landscape. By looking at his photographs, people can easily sense the feeling of familiar story that has 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 melancholy” Besides the melancholy character of him, photos reminds crime scenes to some people but it has also serenity and quietness because of the lightning.

Emotion and imagination are the most essential concepts for the photographs who want to explore the darkness. It can shade the environment and the fears can occur during the dark hours of the city. The photographers in London Nights portray a city from all aspects after sunset. Night also is a symbol of controversial ideas so that it remains as a subjective topic for people. Some people describe night as something fearful and some people find it more calm. It can depend the cities that people coming from to visit the exhibition because culture difference will affect the feelings that are associated with the night. For instance, in Turkey some women afraid of going 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 alone by wearing the clothes they want. Night should represent the independence but unfortunately in some countries it is hard to take a walk at night alone. For this reason, London Nights is more than just an aesthetic display but also informative as it should be. Especially, for younger generations it is a pragmatical exhibition because they can learn how to protect themselves from dangers at night.

Also in this section, there is a photography series which is named Metropole. Lewis Bush’s Metropole project shows the effects of the industrialization and capitalization in London. The city needed to reconstruct itself as a new worldwide city from the strategical and physical point of view very urgently and hopelessly under the imperial twilight. This recent and rapid transformation of the metropolis drags viewers into a trap of loneliness in the city of London. As people look closer into the photos of Lewis Bush, they get lost in the windows of skyscrapers. In addition, she used multiple exposures to emphasize the identical and unidentified office blocks in London. The development in the city for making money is current discussion nowadays. Beautiful buildings are torn down not only in London but also in every country in the world because people make money by changing the nature of the local communities. Lewish Bush said in the interview that she usually photograph things that arise the feelings of anger so it was an easy and logical idea to represent the changes in the city by her photography. For that reason, some people can find her photos disturbing but she is creating a noise for a citizen who lives in changing cities.

The next section of the exhibition is entitled as London Illuminated. It has nocturnal scenes from the enlightened urban environment in London. Also, there are pieces of amateur photographers such as Mercie Lack. Mercie’s works focus on touristic places in London but she has a unique style and ability to capture unseen moments in city scenes. She takes photos as a hobby and it is an important way to introduce visitors a woman photographer working at night in the 1930s. Also, the series entitled Dark City by William Eckersley shows the darkness as a technical illusion. His photography captures empty spaces near buildings by a powerful perspective. For example, he captured a supermarket car park at night. In his photos, people can notice the sky immediately because it is so inky. The reflections of shimmering lights of the street lights can take viewers to a walk among London’s insomniac citizens. These photos and films are displayed in the exhibition with a purple light that comes from the walls so viewers can immediately sense an night environment while they are looking at them. Museum of London creates an egzotic ambience with these lights and people will feel like they are walking at night because of this environment. Also, the most important achievement about museums are the free doms which enable people to understand and have information about the objects they come across of museums. While the visitors are wandering around, they get detailed knowledge about the objects they are interested in with these earphones. Museum of Modern Art in New York has success about this issue because they want to increase the educational context about the exhibitions. However, viewers can not come face to face with of this auditory system so much in this exhibition because they don’t need it while viewing the photography. Besides, there are documentaries which show London streets at night from different perspectives and viewers can put the earphones, then listen the soundtrack of the short-film. For example, there is a 6 minutes digital film with an audio named London/Winterreise in the section called Dark Matters. Bless Luxemburg’s film display two journeys at night 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 plays a significant role to catch the attention of viewers. It creates a sudden and a real night environment for a short time. For that reason, people should visit this exhibition from all over the world to experience a mystical, interactive journey in a museum.

Thirdly, the final section named Switch On, Switch Off is reminded me of lights that are coming from the apartments at night. However it draws the attention to night-time workers such as drivers, sex workers and cleaners. This section shows the various sides of complex associations such as entertainment and economy at night. For example, ordinary people don’t know much about these kinds of lives because they don’t really care. They just know it but they can’t think deeply about them. This section will be very informative for those don’t have an idea about night-workers lives. It will teach viewers that people who work at night can usually have a difficult life but they need to work because they need to gain money for survival in the city. Teenagers and children should also not afraid of taking a tour in this section because there are negative and positive sides of the world. Switch On, Switch Off will teach people to feel empathy towards all kinds of citizens that are working in the city at night. In order not to discriminate each other, this exhibition demonstrates a world of peace in public areas such as parks, clubs and apartments. For instance, Karen Leslie’s and Tish Murtha's collaboration in 1980s captures the night-time sex trade in Soho. According to Daniel Dafoe, London was a great body which ‘circulates all, exports all and last pays for all.’ It is a fresh and giant city so it has its own rules. People in London can embrace different styles and voices so discrimination will be unworthy. Museum of London takes the attention to people have different cultures with various styles in their every display because London has a very diverse environment. London Nights is one of these exhibitions so people who stay and live in London must visit and be proud of their city. On the other hand, in the same section there is Nick Turpin’s 2014 series entitled On the Night Bus captures reminiscent photos of citizens leaning towards the night bus windows. The photographs show the innocence of people at night while they are going back to home after a long day.

Finally, London Nights is prepared in an organized way and it can be seen that it is displayed after a critical, theoretical curatorial work because the informative labels, creative digital media and aesthetic lightning of the exhibition invite people to a night environment while walking through the photography series. People can easily find crafted objects which enable them to evoke their great visual interest in museums. When they observe these valuable objects, they will have the chance of exercising their eyes although they find them interesting or dull according to their visual taste. For that reason design of an exhibition is important as the context of it so with the purple lights and black walls, the exhibition itself represents the whole theme of night. These different forms encourage visitors to come to the exhibition because design and visual arts will always take the attention of people. On the other hand, it will increase curiosity because at the entrance of the display, there is a huge London Nights label with lights that keeps switching off and on. These kinds of ideas can take the attention of viewers immediately. There is nothing to change in the exhibition but they may put some star labels at the ceiling that are shiny. When it gets dark in the area, the stars can get brighter. This idea may fit in this theme because star is one of the symbols of night. However the whole idea of the London Nights will excite visitors. They should come to this exhibition before they go out for the night so they can observe the streets and people in a deeper way. Moreover, the curators of London Nights also thought about the visitors with disabilities because it is not difficult to visit the exhibition for them. They can use the lift to come to the area of display and there are no edges in the ground. It is a smooth ground which it is suitable for handicapped chair to come inside. They may add chairs in the corners for old people because some people sometimes want to rest while wandering around the exhibition or they may want to watch short films seated. For these reasons, museums should think of the disabled and old people because they are part of the community. They should also have a right to visit an exhibition in a museum in an easy way.

As a result, London Nights created a peaceful environment for all people from all countries and curators thought about every detail before they organize the displays. Anna Sparham who is the curator of the London Nights, points out the most important feature about the exhibition by saying that they want the visitors to be aware of the light and dark sides through the image-makers eyes with various angles when they step into the London Nights. Also they want them to leave the facts of daytime realities behind while they are exploring the exhibition with enthusiastic eyes so it is seen by the London Nights exhibition that curators worked really hard in order to achieve this goal.