Night Sky No. 38

By Wolf Kettler

The long exposure photographs of my series Night Sky were created during the darkest three months of the year, from 8 November 2018 to 30 January 2019. The photographs are an experiment with the accumulation of time and light. They are studies of a period of time rather than a snapshot of a moment in time. The series is part of my ongoing investigations into our perception of reality.

This photograph: 31 December 2018 (New Year's Eve), Exposure Time 2'18''

One of the photographs in this series, Night Sky No. 10, was awarded an 'Honourable Mention' by Galerie Biesenbach, Cologne, Germany in their 'Art Matters 2' group show.


To produce prints from this series I needed a paper that was substantial enough to carry the dense coverage. My choice is bamboo paper made in Japan by Awagami. This dense paper is a fine organic choice, which exhibits eco-friendly advantages over cotton-based papers. It is made from a mix of 70% bamboo and 30% recycled pulp. The nominal weight of this paper is 250 gsm. It is a natural rather than artificially bright (bleached) white.

A paper of this calibre will always display a certain amount of variation from one sheet to another. For instance, some minute irregularity in the pulp or the occasional tiny fleck may be visible. This is not a fault but a result of the paper making process, which marks it out over the sterility of mass produced papers.

Prints ship in a box and are unframed. The dimensions quoted are the size of the paper. There is a white margin around the actual image.