Lampposts in the city
A woman sits motionless, alone by a lamppost, staring into nothingness as she waits for her lover. The light has not yet faded completely from the sky. It is that quiet hour—when the day prepares to leave, and the lamppost prepares to glow—beside a silent river, along an empty road, under an arch.
I walk with a hunger for open public spaces, time forgotten, no clock in hand. Alone, before night fully arrives, I find myself drawn to these tall posts of public light—each with its own story, flirting with my eyes. This ritual unfolds in the early dark, when I go out not to capture but to listen—hunting for meaning without intention, guided only by my Nikon and the light.
Long ago, one could hire a man with a torch to lead them home. Paris, some say, was the first modern city to illuminate its streets. Others recall that the Arab Empire lit Córdoba with early lamp systems. The first street in the UK to glow with electric light was Mosley Street, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Today, lampposts come on automatically, every night, in every city—lit in rain or snow, on either side of a border, near ruins or beside new roads. I admire them for this one small but constant act: to remain lit, every night, without fail.
This is their quiet power:
To keep watch.
To remain alive through the night.
To cast dignity on the ordinary.
As I walk beneath them, I sense the streets whispering their stories under the oaks. And in those exact moments—when the streetlights rise—I hear Tasos Leivaditis in my head, his poem “The Motion of the Stars” giggling softly into the dusk.
but even when they drive you away; there is no reason for their actions but to make you see the infinity of the sunset; this is the time when the lights go on and everything becomes such possibility that you could live on eternity
The original quote in Greek:
όταν σε διώχνουν γιατί να το κάνουν, αν όχι για να δεις έξω την απεραντοσύνη του δειλινού, είναι η ώρα που ανάβουν τα φώτα και για μια στιγμή γίνονται όλα τόσο πιθανά, που θα μπορούσες να ζήσεις μια αιωνιότητα
