Everyone who had one day (or one night) the strange idea to try to work with light, came to this decision by a different way. My personal interest to light came first through an inclination for a wide, foreign and almost non-explored territory : the night. This particular time of our everyday life is characterized in its natural state by the absence of sunlight, by the nocturnal darkness. In the night’s darkness every light presence can get a powerful impact.

The magic of the lights at night was the way I took to discover the magic of the light in general. While discovering and working with the artificial lighting tools at night, I realised the incredible wealth of the natural light at day. There is no comparison between the richness of the natural lighting effects and the artificial lighting effects, but every lighting designer has to surpass this complex and to work with it.

The more you learn about light the more you discover the extent of what you ignore about light and shadows. The mastery of the technologic tools to manage natural or artificial lights is only one part of the way we have to follow. To design lighting environment for people we have to understand the natural light and to try to “use” its beneficial effects in relation with the great possibilities offered by the artificial light. And at night we have to keep in mind that it’s a specific time where the light, despite of its artificial state, can have deep and subtle influences.

Anne Bureau