Christian Waeber's exhibit of nighttime shots entitled “Another Night in Somerville” is on display at the SCATV Gallery.

By Alex Botti

A street corner, dark but for the neon light of a store’s awning. An empty storefront standing beside a dimly-lit, closed restaurant, a vacant bench sitting out front on the deserted night street. These are Somerville scenes that residents rarely see – intimate portraits of the city taken late at night, free of the bustle of the day.

Christian Waeber’s exhibit of nighttime shots entitled “Another Night in Somerville” on display at the SCATV Gallery – part of a larger collection of work for which Waeber was awarded a 2010 Somerville Arts Council grant – gives viewers a glimpse of this “other” Somerville.

The absence of daylight and daytime commotion does not eliminate striking lighting and atmosphere from these photographs. Waeber’s photos feel free of the clutter of a busy daytime scene, allowing the viewer to focus instead on aspects of a cityscape that normally go unnoticed. There is a certain beauty in the way a streetlight casts a long, angular glow on one quiet road’s brick buildings, for example. And a chain link fence against a deep blue nighttime sky becomes captivating.

“My photography is also about capturing the essence of what is in front of my camera, it is about simplifying,” writes Waeber on his personal website. “The long exposures used for night photographs strip the images from the fleeting details; the large shadow areas focus the viewer’s attention on the essential elements of the scene, capturing the essence of the place.”

While these portraits of Somerville may be “simplified” in one sense, they are rich in nuanced light and indeed leave the viewer with the essence of the quiet places Waeber has captured in darkness.

ANOTHER NIGHT IN SOMERVILLE: Night Photographs of an American City.

The SCATV Gallery in the SCATV building @ 90 Union Square, Somerville, MA.

Gallery Hours:

Mon. – Thurs. Noon to 10:00 PM

Fri. – Sat.        10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Closed Sundays and Monday holidays

Christian Waeber’s interview with ART AT SCATV host, Janet Cormier can be viewed on

Tuesday evenings on channel 3 at 7:00 PM or on line at www.access-scat.org.

To see more of Waeber’s photographs, see his book “Another Night in Somerville: Night Photographs of an American City.”