Inspired by the pleasure, danger and allure of the night.

• Position: Focus - Night photography

FOR more than 100 years, photographers have been drawn to the challenge of making images after dark, capturing the aesthetic effects of nighttime rain, early-morning fog, shining street lamps, and dimly lit rooms. Modern camera artists have been captivated by glowing skyscrapers, dazzling neon signs, glittering nightlife, and the shadowy realm of the nocturnal underworld.

Photography in low-light conditions first became possible in the late 1880s with the introduction of the gelatin dryplate process, which reduced exposure time significantly. Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen were among the first to take up the challenge of capturing images after dark. Stieglitz turned his lens on the city in such works as "Reflections: Night, New York" (1897) and "An Icy Night" (1898), while Steichen rendered the magic of the woods at dusk in "Woods Twilight" (1899). Alvin Langdon Coburn, a contemporary of Stieglitz and Steichen, was mesmerized by the glow of Manhattan's electrified street lamps, which he compared to stars lighting up the avenue, as in his photograph, "Broadway at Night" (c. 1910).

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By the early 20th century, night photography came into its own as an artistic genre as the technical innovations of smaller handheld cameras, faster photographic film, and commercial flashbulbs freed artists to explore further the nocturnal universe of shimmering light and velvety darkness. Brassai made his name as a chronicler of Paris after dark with the publication of Paris by Night in 1932. The dreamy atmosphere of Brassai"s photographs is intensified by his preference for shooting on misty nights. "Fog and rain ... tend to soften contrasts," he wrote. "Steam, as well as wet ground, act as reflectors and diffuse the light of the lamps in all directions. Therefore, it is necessary to photograph certain subjects in the rain, since it is the rain that makes them 'photogenic.'"

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Another pioneer of night photography, Bill Brandt portrayed the lives of all levels of British society in both staged and documentary photographs from the 1930s and 1940s. The exhibition features four of his works, including "Soho Bedroom" (1936), depicting a couple locked in a passionate embrace which was published in his influential A Night in London (1938). He later wrote: "The darkened town, lit only by moonlight, looked more beautiful than before or since."

Inspired by Brassai and Brandt...