When Australian photographer Tom Blachford visited Palm Springs last summer, he knew he had to take some pictures of the architecture. Nestled in California's Coachella Valley about two hours outside Los Angeles, the resort city has the highest concentration of modernist homes in the country. It was a short visit, and Blachford was intent on making the most of his time. So when other tourists were turning in for the night, Blachford set out to shoot the city's modern masterpieces under the full moon.
The photographs in Midnight Modern, now showing in Melbourne, were taken during two sessions one year apart. Returning to Australia after that first trip last summer, Blachford found himself haunted by photos he'd made. "I think there is definitely something unsettling about the images which I am really drawn to," he says. He like the mysterious air of the houses in the gloaming, and how the photographs put vastly different scales of time in a single frame. "You have houses up to 70 years old, mountains millions of years old, and stars billions of years old all layered within the one shot," he says.
Blachford knew a second twilight shoot would give him enough material for a full set, so he and his girlfriend looked up the dates for the next summer's full moons. They were delighted to learn a supermoon was expected the following July. They booked their flights.
Most of the photographs in the series were snapped around midnight. The main criteria was the houses couldn't have any interior lights burning—that would have ruined the exposure. So Blachford and his girlfriend, Kate Ballis, also a photographer, drove around looking for darkened homes, occasionally stopping and squinting and waiting for their eyes to adjust so they could evaluate a potential subject.
The older neighborhoods didn't have any streetlights, and Blachford didn't bring lights of his own. Instead, the duo simply set up the camera and worked by moonlight. Exposure times ranged from thirty seconds up to a full minute for the Swiss-Miss, chalet-style houses that "needed a little more time to get some light under their steep roofs." The photographer was happy with how his Nikon d800 managed in near darkness, though a few times he had to sneak up to a house's front door and shine his phone on his face so Ballis could dial in camera's settings.
>"I'm fascinated by the history that has
already taken place within these homes."
It isn't unusual for people to photographs the homes of Palm Springs, and the city embraces its rich architectural heritage. The nonprofit Palm Springs Modern Committee, or PS ModCom, is dedicated to preserving these mid-century modern treasures, which starting popping up in the 1930s as Hollywood stars and others discovered the area. Visitors can use an iPad app created by the non-profit to navigate to the city's most famous sites. A three-hour tour of the gems runs twice daily.
But Blachford's photographs aren't just a document of an interesting moment in American architectural history. With their dreamlike lightning, they transport us back to the city's heyday, when Frank Sinatra held court in his glamorous eight-building compound and Dean Martin had his own place down the street. In their perfect stillness, the homes look a bit like backlot sets, inviting us to imagine the stories that have played out within them.
Blachford can't help but wonder about that himself. "I’m fascinated by the history that has already taken place within these homes," he says. "Each one has seen parties, brawls and countless other events over its life. If these walls could talk they would put even the most scandalous and stylish moments of Mad Men to shame."
