For his bachelor's thesis, UAS photography student Oskar Schlechter focused on "light pollution" in cities and created a 160-page photo book entitled "Darkless". The documentary "The Power of Night" now shows the 29-year-old and his work in the media library of the TV channel "arte".
Right at the start of the new edition of the cultural series "TWIST", you will not only see footage taken by Oskar Schlechter on his nocturnal excursions. He himself is also in front of the TV camera and explains the problems that arise from "light smog" - when night is artificially turned into day, so to speak, meaning that the laws of nature are suspended and the biorhythm of humans, animals and plants, for example, suffers as a result.
Link to the TV documentary
Food for thought
"My work is intended as a stimulus to think about the respective situations: Do we really need the light?" says Oskar Schlechter. "Does the lighting really have to be activated in all rooms? And what about in the garden?", he gives examples for private individuals. Other examples in public spaces include lanterns, illuminated advertising displays and floodlit buildings. "This is something that those responsible should also look into, regardless of the current energy crisis."
Lighting at work and in everyday life
For his photo book, which is due to go to print in 2023, Oskar Schlechter also portrayed people who deal with excessive night-time lighting in their everyday lives or professionally, including a light researcher. The thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Marcel Marburger and Prof. Kai Jünemann from the Faculty of Design at Fachhochschule Dortmund.
