I photographed at night in the Sherwin-Williams Paint factory yard in Emeryville, CA—now gone, replaced by an IKEA. I wasn’t interested in documenting the factory itself, but in how darkness and light and shadow can completely re-contextualize our understanding and perception of space. It transformed this industrial space into a mysterious landscape of huge tanks and artificial lights.

During the day, everything looks mundane—each object clearly serving its purpose. But at night, something eerie happens. The machinery and structures lose their obvious functions, and the place takes on a life of its own, separate from whatever happens there during working hours. The artificial lights cut objects out of the surrounding darkness, isolating them and giving them this ominous presence.

I used subjective color to push the drama further, creating an almost surreal atmosphere. Some images have red or magenta skies that make these industrial forms feel completely disconnected from their everyday uses. In some images the ground mostly neutral, and it others it is very subjective—it works like a stage for everything happening above.

These photographs are about capturing the mood and mystery I felt wandering around the Sherwin-Williams yard after dark—a world where industrial machinery becomes something more primitive and stranger.