Every once in a great while, I create a photograph that is so provocative, so controversial in its unorthodox message, that it sends waves of shock around the world. THE NIGHT OF ETERNAL AND UNRELENTING DARKNESS does just that. I woke up at 2 A.M. with this post-modern vision, immediately going to work on the complex issues of subject matter, composition, and lighting before my dream was forever lost. It is only through my hours of toiling that this ground-breaking achievement can be the domain of all humanity. This is the bifurcation point where new splits from old, from which a whole wave of art can emerge, disrupting our predilections and engaging our senses in new and unstable ways. Can the darkness inspire you? Of course it can. The question is, are you willing to let go of what you’ve learned, to accept that which you now believe you cannot accept? If you cannot, you are the same as the lowly rat, who goes through thousands of generations, never challenging, never innovating, never evolving, never thinking. My highest hope is that you can accept and befriend the darkness, for it represents the darkness of life. The darkness which we cannot escape, the darkness which is always there no matter how we struggle to drown it in light. The darkness which represents what we do not know yet attempt to explain—the darkness which we cannot understand and yet fight so bravely to understand. To know, we must know we cannot know. To understand, we must understand we cannot understand. These are the essential principles of this photograph, THE NIGHT OF ETERNAL AND UNRELENTING DARKNESS, and I know I can pass them on to you.

I had to put all my editing skills to use here, but the end result is so worth the days of torment.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/4000, F22, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-05-05T02:55:41-04, 20080505-065541rxt

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.