Building on his previous studies in landscape architecture, photographer and environmental artist Blake Gordon set out to explore the urban environment- at night. He initiated his Nightwalks project in 2007 while pursuing a graduate degree in Design at the University of Texas – Austin.

The project evolved from shorter outings to multi-night, self-supported, treks. Leaving behind a phone, ID, and money, he eventually went out on a continuous 5-night walk of more than 26 miles through Austin. He slept during the day, camping wherever he could.

“I’m interested in how we understand and relate to our environment through experience. I needed to construct an experience that was utterly different than my day-to-day relationship with the city. In a wilderness journey, that model is in place. So I took that model and applied it to my everyday environment. I was dropped off north of town and had enough supplies to walk for 5 nights.”

Letting the peculiarities of artificial light be the guide, the images act as architectural photographs of the spaces encountered along his  meandering nocturnal transect.  “When someone tells me the pictures don’t look like Austin, I know the experiment was successful. I set out to understand the city in a completely different light.” To see more of Blake Gordon’s work click here.