Goodnight, Raleigh!

Purpose

Goodnight, Raleigh! was started during the summer of 2007. From the very beginning, the goal was not to display artistic or postcard-like photos of Raleigh for visual enjoyment. The idea is to show night photography for photojournalistic and documentary purposes. Posts are not normally made based on current events. The end result is a photographic style which shares many characteristics of Street Photography, mostly borne out of random experiences while strolling the streets of Raleigh.

We aim to provide a thorough visual documentation of the city of Raleigh at night. This inludes the people, places, history, buildings, and night life that make up the city.

A Community of Flâneurs

The term flâneur was coined by the French poet Charles Baudelaire, who used it to describe a “botanist of the sidewalk”, or someone who has a vital role in understanding and portraying metropolitan culture. A natural progression of the flâneur of Baudelarire’s day is that of the urban photographer walking the streets aimlessly to document the items which cross his or her path.

Community Involvement

We do not run any commercial advertisements on this site, but we do try to draw attention to community related programs that benefit everyone. If you have a cause, charity, co-op, benefit event, or something similar you’d like to promote, please contact us with more information. We’d love to help.

Historic Preservation

One of the reasons the downtown area is expanding at breathtaking levels is the fact that there is a genuine feel to an area that has been around a long time. While everyone welcomes and encourages this natural growth and progression, many recognize the fact that the character of a city is defined by its past. Erasing buildings, landmarks, homes, and businesses of yesterday creates a more sterile and lifeless environment. One of the chief missions of this site is to document the items that define this character–in some instances before they are destroyed to make room for future development. Historical significance is not limited to the official list of the National Register of Historic Places.

Locations Covered

There is focus on downtown, but not exclusively. There are very many important parts of Raleigh outside of the downtown area, and we hope to document them too. In addition to the documentation of history and Raleigh’s past, we also aim to document the lesser known parts of the city. Although we will sometimes feature the instantly recognizable, we strive to show you a slice of Raleigh you aren’t familiar with.

Requests For Commercial Use Of Photos

We welcome inquiries by creative services companies, non-profits, and other organizations that would like to use photos from this site. Please note that with a few exceptions the terms of all agreements involve credit/attribution to this site in the use of all photos. Please see the copyright section for additional information.

We Love Reader Submitted Photos!

Do you have a photo of Raleigh at night you’d like to see on the blog? Attach it to an email and send to: goodnightraleigh@gmail.com. Do you take a lot of photos of Raleigh at night and want to be a contributor? Visit the Contact section and drop us an email. We aim to provide photos of Raleigh at night as seen through the eyes of many different residents or visitors.

Staff/Contributors’ Information

I first started taking photos of Raleigh at night four years ago, when I moved here from Asheville. I was initially disappointed at the apparent lack of a thriving downtown scene here. The years went by and I found myself downtown more and more at night, taking more photos along the way. In May of 2007, I decided to start a blog showing off what downtown Raleigh was transforming into.

John is an internationalization administrator for a technology company and has two dogs.

Karl Larson - Historian/Contributing Photographer

“I moved to Raleigh from Wake Forest with my family in the mid 1950s. Back then, practically everything was downtown; there was no beltline, no suburban sprawl, and Cameron Village shopping center was relatively new. My Dad worked downtown, my Mom shopped downtown, we went to church downtown and I even went to school downtown. During my junior high school years a couple buddies and I explored downtown on the weekends, and I even took dozens of black and white photos with my trusty Kodak Instamatic camera. In later years I became interested in, and studied Raleigh’s history, but most of what I know about downtown Raleigh is from first-hand experience!”

Karl is a graphic designer at N.C. State University

“I was born in Greenville, North Carolina, but came to Raleigh at a very early age and have been here since. I’ve enjoyed seeing the city develop and grow and I like to help document that through photos.”

Devin is a recent graduate of the College of Design at NCSU. You can see some of his photography at flickr.

Copyright Information

As you will notice at the bottom of every page, unless specifically noted otherwise, all images are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike deed. This means that you may download and share the images here, but they cannot be used for commercial purposes (such as advertising).