‘The Ambiguity of Twilight’

Photographs by Francis J Michaels

I have always been drawn to the moments before sunrise and after sunset.  These times of the day can be eerie, particularly in the morning hours, when people are scarce.  As a photographer, I am sometimes in strange locations at these odd times of the day looking for photo opportunities.  Uncertainty fills the air, as I walk in places unknown to me, always expecting the unexpected.  The imagery in this show conveys my lure toward this mystical and ambiguous time of day we call twilight.

am bi gu i ty  | ambi’gyoo ite |
noun ( pl. -ties)
uncertainty or inexactness of meaning in language : we can detect no ambiguity in this section of the Act | ambiguities in such questions are potentially very dangerous.
• a lack of decisiveness or commitment resulting from a failure to make a choice between alternatives : the film is fraught with moral ambiguity.
-Thesaurus-  ambiguity
the ambiguity of the rule made it impossible to followvagueness, obscurity, abstruseness, doubtfulness, uncertainty; formal dubiety; ambivalence, equivocation, double meaning.

twi light  | ‘twi lit |
noun
the soft glowing light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon, caused by the refraction and scattering of the sun's rays from the atmosphere.
• the period of the evening during which this takes place, between daylight and darkness : a pleasant walk in the woods at twilight.
• [in sing. ] figurative a period or state of obscurity, ambiguity, or gradual decline : he was in the twilight of his career.

-Thesaurus-  twilight

1 we arrived at twilight dusk, sunset, sundown, nightfall, evening, close of day, day's end; literary eventide, gloaming. antonym dawn, daybreak.
2 it was scarcely visible in the twilight half-light, semidarkness, gloom.
3 the twilight of his career decline, waning, ebb; autumn, final years, tail end. antonym dawn, peak, height.
adjective
a twilight world shadowy, dark, shady, dim, gloomy, obscure, crepuscular, twilit