BLUE

HOUR

The blue hour is the period after sunset, when the sun has sunk below the horizon and the light slowly dims until daytime has disappeared from the sky. During this transition, sunlight gives way to artificial light, and everything changes in the city—its speeds, its atmospheres, and the habits of its citizens. Day and night cross fleetingly and coexist for a brief period of time, producing an uncanny effect caught in René Magritte’s painting series The Empire of Light. As daylight finally fades, its temperature changes from warm to cool, and diminishing contrast flattens the contours of places and things.

Blue Hour is a short film intended to be viewed on paper. A sto­ry is told in sixty time-lapse photographs taken from a single vantage point at intervals of one per minute, starting just before the sun crosses the horizon. As time passes, the source of the light changes, as does its color temperature. The location is the interior of a loft apartment, somewhat barren. In the time elapsed, the warmly drenched sun-filled room dims as the fluorescent light evenly washes the space with a clinical blue-green hue, followed by the orange glow of a sodium-vapor lamp from the street.

The unknown occupant is seen through reflections and shadows. As the hour progresses and the story unfolds, the light or absence of it reveals and conceals information. Light acts not only as the structure of the story but also as its protagonist and subtext.

Blue Hour was created in collaboration with Matthew Monteith, and was commissioned by Zumtobel Group.