Mark Broyer (b. 1979) is an art director and photographer based in Hamburg, Germany. “What the Fog?” is a personal project of photographer Mark Broyer who spent one late evening shooting translucent city of Hamburg in the fog.
Freelance art director and designer Mark Broyer explores his hometown of Hamburg after dark, shooting evocative night photography of its neon-tinged streets. Focusing on the empty avenues and stark storefronts of the German city, Broyer pulls out the lush details of the urban landscape.
Broyer was first attracted to night photography as a way to explore the beauty in the ordinary. “The city reveals a different face at night so that certain areas can become an imaginary movie stage just through the lights of the surrounding,” he tells My Modern Met. “And I like the absence of people in the photos, which is much easier to accomplish at night.”
“In the beginning, I tried to challenge myself to find interesting shots in my hometown,” Broyer confesses. “I always thought everything else, especially far away places, were much more interesting. But I just hadn’t looked close enough to find something worthy enough to photograph.”
Favouring light instead of the darkness, his night street photography is infused with colour from neon shop lights and street lamps that cast dramatic shadows on the pavement. Among images of places frequented by people during the day — restaurants, cinemas, parking lots — Broyer also includes poignant shots of apartment windows illuminated from within: reminders that life continually pulsates in a city, no matter how deserted it may seem.
