Satellites have given us a huge amounts of information about Earth — including the fact that many of our cities are so blinding lit, they’re visible from space. Those radiant cities are the subject of Lux, a photo essay by photographer Christina Seely.
Lux is a taxonomy of light pollution: A look at the three regions of the world that produce the most extreme light pollution around the globe, based on NASA’s observations. It took Seely, who is based in San Francisco, five years to visit dozens of different cities across Europe, Japan and the US, seeking out locations along coastlines and on hills where she could capture the glow from afar.
“These economically and politically powerful regions not only have the greatest impact on the night sky but this brightness reflects a dominant cumulative impact on the planet,” Seely explains in her artist’s statement, continuing:
For most of human history, man-made light has signified hope and progress within local and global arenas. In this project, light also paradoxically denotes an index of the added complex negative human impacts on the health and future of the planet.
It tends to get ignored in the face of more pressing crises, but darkness is a disappearing luxury in our world. Our skies are so bright these days, many kids haven’t actually ever seen Milky Way. In fact, we’re forgetting what darkness is even like.
Check out some of Seely’s photographs below, or snap up her new Monograph. [Christina Seely; The New Yorker]
Madrid, Spain:
Metropolis 40°25′ N 3°41′ W.
Paris, France:
Metropolis 48° 52′ N 2° 19′ E.
Kyoto, Japan:
Metropolis 35°00’N 135°45’E.
Tokyo, Japan:
Metropolis 35° 41’N 139° 46’E.
Chicago, Illinois:
Metropolis 41°54’N 87°39’W.
Las Vegas, Nevada:
Metropolis 36°10′ N 115°8′ W.
London, England:
Metropolis 51° 29′ N 0° 0′ W.
New York, New York:
Metropolis 40°47′ N 73°58′ W.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands:
Metropolis 52° 23′ N 4° 55′ E.
Milan, Italy:
Metropolis 45° 27′ N 9° 10′ E.
Nagoya, Japan:
Metropolis 35° 10’N 136° 50’E.