“I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs,” street photography god Garry Winogrand once said. In many ways Alex Bamford goes one stage further by photographing Sussex at night in order to make it look different. With parallels in Ryan McGinnley’s recent Moonage exhibition, Moonlighting – Alex’s first show – makes Earth look like and alien landscape. His exposures – only possible on two or three days either side of a full moon – last from three to ten minutes (“Too short is dark, too long looks like day time,” he explains) leaving a stillness under dramatic skies.

But that’s not the only exposure concerns. Alex often treks out in temperatures that require thermals on thermals, as low as -10c in the snow. In fact it was snow that inspired the whole project. As an art director on an advertising shoot in Japan, Alex watched the snow blowing off the top of Mount Fuji by moonlight. Returning home he started with windmills – you can see one as November’s North Lane Photography calender pic – three years ago and has now moved on to adding his own light.

“I recently started taking out gelled lights and utilised years of bad dancing technique to create the light fight series,” he says of his colourful balls and ribbon twirls.

As beautiful as any landscapes we’ve seen of the county, Alex’s photos shows that there’s light in even the darkest situations.

The Eagle from Tues 1st – Thurs 31st December 2009