Midnight on Main: Capturing Small Town America at Night

Daniel Freeman has a long-standing and deep-seated affection for American culture, born of watching American car chase movies in his youth. This love turned into obsession when he discovered photography and was introduced to the work of seminal American photographers who had travelled and captured the States. In his 20s, Daniel made his first trip to America, where he grew increasingly enamored with small American towns and their quirks. In the decade-plus that followed, he made multiple cross-country U.S. trips with a focus on documenting small-town America at night. This ultimately became the series “Midnight on Main,” which has gone on to be featured by the BBC, The Guardian, Aesthetica magazine, and multiple other online and print outlets.

In this talk, Daniel will elaborate on how his journey led to this long-term project, and the challenges that come with not only pursuing such an undertaking, but also in finding the type of exposure that can help fuel it forward. He will discuss how he selects his locations and his process for choosing compositions in response to light and theme, with anecdotal and technical accompaniment of the photographs. He will also touch on technical aspects, including the various processes he uses, his approach to creating nocturnal urban exposures (including some slightly less traditional/obvious methods), and working with all available light in a scene.