Luxemburg studied photography at London College of Communication and gained her last formal education at the University of Westminster. She employs long exposures to allows her to use the light emanating from the street only, for instance from office blocks or street lights in her photos. Luxemburg created a series of images for the London Underground in 2007. Many of her photographs and prints deal with nocturnal themes.
Through her work she investigates and explores how the cityscape both reflects and affects human condition. Luxemburg takes photographs at night on the edge of the centre of the city using long exposure that allow her to use the light emanating form the street only – from office blocks and street lights.
Luxemburg’s distinctive style creates a sometimes immediately recognisable image, however some of her images are almost abstract. Urban landscapes can sometimes be intimidating to approach, but Luxemburg manages to create a poetic image that allows the viewer to be drawn in to notice the unnoticed an capture the details of a familiar yet alien environment.
Luxemburg states that she is ‘attracted to the heimlichkeit of a space in the public. A space that allows for a moment of repose.’
In choosing her location of her urban landscapes, but also in the subject itself, Luxemburg states that ‘it is hard for me to photograph places where I don’t have that feeling or relation’. Luxemburg also moved on from capturing streets in her work, in particular ‘A Modern Project’, whilst they are still included they are not so obvious as a subject and Luxemburg focusses on other places in the urban landscape. ‘Liebeslied’ was influenced by Roland Barthes’ saying ‘To get out, go in deeper’, Luxemburg going in deeper by getting closer to the ground.
The process of Luxemburg’s work, as mentioned before is the use of long exposures, she uses a 5 x 4 camera that ‘requires slowness’.
In an interview with Luxemburg, she explains how she is drawn to the sites of her work. As mentioned previously Luxemburg has stated how she finds it hard to take photographs of an environment she is unfamiliar with. She also goes out ‘wandering’ before she sets out to take the final images, looking for subjects that draw her in, compositions that ctach her eye that she will later go back to with the 5×4 camera.
For Luxemburg I do not think it is structure that makes her work recognisable, but her use of colours and tones. The rich tones of orange and yellow and green in her images, make her work recognisable in an instant. The lighting of other places around the subject, emphasise the atmosphere but also bring out the themes of her images. Not only obviously portraying what she has noticed but allowing the reader the time to notice it.
The long exposure of the image creates a sense that the glow of the lights allow the viewer when looking at the image more time to look at them. As she has studied these areas and captured them for us over time, we should observe and read her images for a time too. ”
My views on her work: I personally really like her pictures and I especially like how a lot of her work fits in with a particular style that is memorable as her work. This style is very urban and represents night / city everyday life. In addition, her colour use is very interesting as there are many dark tones and shadows as well as yellow and orange warm undertones, are emphasised to create an overall warm coloured but dark tonal picture. Furthermore, I also like how she uses light tones which are often being reflected in some way, this creates a tonal contrast which I think has a nice effect. I think a lot of her images share a common connotation of mystery in an urban landscape.
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