Nights

A night-time exploration of Blacksburg

Clay Street Sunset

Why night?

The last vestiges of red-orange glow over silhouetted ridges as the breeze ruffles your jacket sleeves, mowed-grass savor billowing. Turning around, you have to squint to catch the first twinkling stars materializing in the sky, and by the time you look back, the hour is deep blue. Welcome to the night.

Our activity historically has been muted by nightfall; businesses close, people retire, and daily bustle comes to a standstill. What are these same places like in a different light? What happens on campus when 31,000 people aren't looking? Who are my nocturnal compatriots? The mystery and solitude drew me in as an explorer; Nights reveals the moods and discoveries I encountered.

Life plays out in front of us; do we ever look up? Have we seen the yawning expanse that is our sky-dome and wondered what the rest of the world sees in theirs? We gaze at the same full moon as countless others anywhere there is night. We are all on this blue marble called Earth, and night reveals to us our small, linked existences in the face of the cosmos. If we're looking.

Where?


See Nights locations corresponding to video shots in a larger map.