Into the dark: A history of night photography - British Journal of Photography

Andrew McConnell's show the plight of the Sahrawi people of the Western Sahara, who are caught in a war for their own independence from Morocco and Mauritania. Their neighbours have limited access to power, literally and figuratively and, like DiCampo, McConnell uses minimal lighting to drive the point home. "They were shot on the Canon 5D Mk II, and the low-light capability of the camera was a great help in capturing these shots," he says. "Before the new sensors came along, noise would have been a major issue, quality would have suffered, and the tonal range would not have been good because detail in the shadow would have been lost. 

"Now there are no limitations to what hour of the day a photographer can shoot, especially with the new batch of recent DSLRs. I'm shooting a follow-up to the Sahara work and am about to start using the 5D Mk III – the possibilities are exciting and I'm specifically looking for larger depth-of-field at night, something that has been difficult to achieve up until now."

Name withheld, photographed at an undisclosed location on the coast of Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara. From the series The Last Colony © Andrew McConnell.

Andrew McConnell Western Sahara Gallery : Click here